


My Life Was So Boring I Started Playing One of Those Shitty Online Games and Became the Cute Priestess I Never (Realized I) Wanted to Be! or, NaruPrie

by AriaBlackmoor



Series: NaruPrie [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Body Swap, F/F, Fantasy, Gender Bender, Gender Identity, Isekai, Politics in a Fictional World, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2019-10-15 22:36:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 42
Words: 48,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17537621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriaBlackmoor/pseuds/AriaBlackmoor
Summary: A bored, lonely girl in our world starts up a new online game, [Zero Collector].A rebellious, trapped boy in another world finds an mysterious magical scroll, the [Zero Collector].As their lives entwine, can they find the secrets of the [Zero Collector] and return home? Or…do they even want to?





	1. Arc 1: Past in Flames

You  know, as long as I could remember, I wasn’t really ‘attached’ to my life. I was just…too normal, I guess. I made decent grades, I had some decent friends, we were decidedly middle-class, we lived in a decent area…I had nothing to complain about.

 Well, I guess I didn’t like sweat. It always felt weird and gross on me, really…unnatural, as dumb as that sounds. Accordingly perhaps, I never really got talented at sports or outdoors stuff like most boys, no I spent most of my youth cloistered in my house. When my mom forced me to join a sport in high school, I chose swimming just to get away from it. Curse me when I learned you can sweat underwater, and in any case chlorine wasn’t much better…But even at that sport, I was decent.

Yes, I guess you could say I am Decent. But, it all felt so surreal. Like, I was just a spectator in my own life, never feeling connected to the events around me.

The only place that gave me life, I found, was online. Be it games, forums, streams, or whatever, the digital world managed to be much more entertaining than life outside. My parents worried that I was addicted, but well, I guess being Decent meant they didn’t have reason to really complain.

Which is what got me into this mess. I had come home that day, there was money on the table. I’d gotten a text earlier from my mom telling me to use it on dinner, she and dad were going to be out til late like usual. Of course, I had other plans—the stock of instant noodles was all I needed for sustenance, that money could go towards a new skin in Defense of Overlegends after all.

Before that, though, there was something I wanted to check out. Right before bed last night, I was browsing reddchan and at the top of the ‘new’ posts, I saw an interesting one. The image attached to it was blank, but the text was…curious.

>Zero Collector! A new universal sensation! Join it at [hppt://zerocollect.or/w1beta](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fzerocollector.org%2Fw1beta&t=M2NmMTBiOWQ1M2I4MmZlYmFkMGYwZDBmMjIyMjIyOTNhMmJiNWEzOSx2Wko4QzlhZQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AAQX0NJC6hJc7T4RnF0KTdw&m=1)

>click here to Read More

By the time I clicked on the thread, the post had already been deleted. Thankfully, hitting back brought up the cached version of the page and I copied the url then went to bed.

After my meager dinner, I sat down at the computer and put the url in my browser. It took a moment to come up, but the front page immediately brought me to an EULA. Kinda weird I thought, certainly inappropriate to new players, but I shrugged and scrolled to the bottom and hit Okay. The next page wanted my personal details, which I gave readily(with some slight editing of course ^^). Afterwards, it sent me straight to the next page without even wanting me to check my email, oh what a wonderful future we live in.

>We have selected three lives that might be suited to you!

>R. 16, M. A squire-in-training, he is hot-headed and has a slight chip on his shoulder but is dutiful to his liege.

>C. 16, F. The tomboyish daughter of two merchants, she’s been enrolled to become a priestess.

>Y. 17, M. Orphaned at a young age, this young cait has learned to get by in the shadows.

Wait, so I’m picking off small flavor descriptions like this? This game is certainly unique so far, at least.  However, they needed to mask it a bit more. When you get down to it, this is just the classic choices—Warrior, Mage, Thief. I don’t play warriors ever, so that is out obviously. The choice between mage and thief was a bit harder, but well, I know what I like. The first character I ever made in an online game was a female necromancer because she was prettier than then straight-out-of-S&M-catalogue male model, so it’s wasn’t as if this was new to me. Mind you, playing a catboy rogue also didn’t sound like the worst thing. However, I don’t know if I could truly make enough ‘nyaa’ puns to truly do the character justice.

So, I clicked on C.

>Are you sure? THIS CHOICE IS PERMANENT.

I hit yes.

>Enjoy your new life!

* * *

I was looking down at a old-time looking scroll. When I looked up, there was a huge rack of similar looking cases.

“Cadence? You find it?”

Where was I? As I looked around at the vaulted ceilings and large shelves full of scrolls and books, it was easy to tell I was in a library of some sorts, but how? I was just in my room, right?

“Cadence, honey?” someone put a soft hand on my shoulder, making me jump and the scroll fly out of my hands.

As I looked down at the fallen scroll, I finally noticed my arms. They were much softer and thin than usual…something that seemed to be the case across my entire body as I looked down…

“Cadence, are you okay?” I looked up at the woman, she seemed to be on the older end and looked at me with the same eyes my mother tended to make when she was concerned. There was no one else around us, though. I had to assume “I” was “Cadence”.

Quickly filing through my thoughts, I surmised that telling this woman I was not her daughter would not turn out well, so I just said, “Yeah, sorry,” and grabbed the scroll off the floor.

“Hm, it’s not like you to get caught up in reading like that..” the woman mused. I wasn’t sure how to answer that though, so I just shrugged and tried to brush it off. “Well, no matter. Probably for the best you start taking your studies seriously, anyways. You find what you were looking for?”

I just nodded, presenting the scroll in my hand.

“Good. We need to get home soon so we can cook supper, so let’s get going.” I nodded again, and started following you. Before leaving, we stopped at the front desk for this woman—I presume Cadence’s mother—to pay for the scroll then left.

The city outside seemed just like a town in one of my games—a few businesses, cobbled streets, relative peace and quiet. There were even a few overly-armored guards glaring at us on every corner! Was this all some sort of crazy virtual reality game, I started to think. Certainly, the aesthetic was modern-online-rpg, but it felt so real, I could even smell the light scent of smoke raising from the chimneys around us. When I pinched myself, it hurt too…It was all making my head hurt.

“Are you okay, honey? You’ve been really quiet.” My ‘mother’ asked, more of a question than a concern.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. I just have a headache.”

“Hmm, maybe you should lay down for a little bit when we get back. Since you seem to be making good decisions today, I’ll let you off of helping me cook dinner.” Good decisions? What did she mean by that? I wasn’t going to question it though, so I just accepted the reprieve.

We made it “home” shortly after. It wasn’t extravagant, about the same size of my place at home although with different dimensions. It seemed all of the bedrooms were upstairs, for one. Downstairs, there was a hallway, a kitchen off to the left, and another door to what I assumed was the washroom at the end.

As I walked up the stairs, I heard “mom” call, “I’ll get you when it’s dinner time!”

However, upstairs I found my next problem. There were three bedrooms—an open one which seemed larger than the other two, presumably the parent’s room, and two closed doors. One had was bare, but the other had a pentagram of all things on it!! Or, what remained at least. It seems like someone tried to wipe it off, but failed spectacularly and only appeared to make it more distinctive, the red paint smeared in a way that looked like blood.

It was quite an edgy teenage boy sort of mindset. So, I chose the other door and pushed it open.

“WHAT THE!!” the person inside yelled as I did so. I stopped and looked at him, he seemed young, probably a few years younger than I was in the real world.

And his pants were around his legs, one hand on his crotch and another propping open a book open.

“O-oh, sorry…wrong room.” I murmured, walking backwards out of the room and closing the door.

From downstairs, I heard “mom” call out what was going on, but I told her it was nothing.

I tried the pentagram door this time, and thankfully found an empty room this time. Of course, I almost wished it was occupied, because I internally cringed at the mess in the room—clearly Cadence wasn’t one for cleaning. Or reading, as the near-empty bookcase attested to. In fact, from a glance, the only thing I could divine that she liked was swords—there were at least a dozen strewn across the floor, more than I’d ever even seen in real life. Who have I gotten involved with here, jeez.

Next to the bookcase was a small writing desk, so I forced my way across the junk heap and took at seat at it. Well, first thing is first, what was this scroll I was holding?

I unfurled it, spreading it across the desk, and immediately I frowned. For, in large English letter at the top it said [Zero Collector].

Then, below it, in a weird language I’d never seen before but somehow could comprehend it said.

>M. 16, M. A dissatisfied, lonely boy who neither excels nor fails at anything.

Then, below that.

>Enjoy your new life!

My heart was racing, because if the person I chose—a teenage girl who’s name started with C correlated with the person whose body I inhabited—then a teenage boy who’s name started with M could only mean one thing.

_Me._


	2. Chapter 2

At present, I was laying on the bed with my head under the pillow. I had spent an hour trying to interact with that scroll in anyways and, short of possibly tearing it up, I don’t think anything would work at this point without more knowledge of how the magic of this place worked.

 

Which is to say, I will probably be stuck here for a while.

Which is to say, I am truly and incredibly fucked without figuring out more about my situation. As much as I would like to brood on it more, there sadly was a time limit here. I barely managed to make it here without garnering suspicion, let alone handling a whole dinner conversation.

I pulled my head out of the pillows and hopped off the bed, but my foot got caught on something on the floor and I tumbled backwards back onto the bed. When I looked down, I saw the object I got caught on—a small book.

I picked it up, examining the leather exterior. It seemed to glow in the fading sunlight. There was no lettering or iconography on it, but from the fraying edges and slight tears in the leather it was clear this was well-loved. Or, considering the rest of this girl’s stuff, at least well-used. I opened it.

Inside, on the first page in a child’s script, it said..

>Cadence Pythia Gracile

>DON’T READ!!

Cadence Pythia Gracile. What a name. I guess I should stop being surprised by it, but as I looked around at the blades and mess around me I couldn’t help but think it was quite unfitting. I should also note at this point that none of that was in English, either, but the same script as on the Zero Collector scroll. I surmised that this was the language of the people in the world and silently blessed that whatever fiend brought me here also endowed me with the ability to read and speak it.

After I stopped giggling at her name though, I heaved a sigh of relief. If this was what I think it was, then…

I turned the page, and immediately laughed.

>YM 24 304

>Hi diary…

Was it really this easy? That I’d find something to solve my problem immediately through such a cliched and random method as  _tripping over it?_ It was comical, but I stifled laughter long enough to continue.

>Dear Diary…

>Hi diary. My name is Cadence and mommy told me to write in you. I dont know what to write in you so this is it.

How informative. I began flipping through the pages.

>YM 30 304

>Dear diary. Mommy told me to write in you again and said I should write about me. I am 5 years old right now~but my birthday is during the next moon! I hope daddy takes me to the shoot bows again! My family is mommy, daddy, me, and my brother Woodrow. He is 2 years younger than me. I have 2 friends right now, Leon and Brigam. I like them. Leons daddy owns a big house and we hide from his moms a lot.

>RM 14 304

>Dear diary. I am 6 now! Daddy took me to shoot bows again. He still won though but I think he cheated. He could pull it back so far I dont believe it. On the way home we saw a group of masked ladies. He told me one day I would be one of them too but I dont believe it. Wouldnt they be hot in those clothes all the time?

>RM 25 304

>Dear diary. Mommy and daddy told me I have to start going to school in fifteen days. I dont wanna go! I wanna run around and shoot bows. But daddy says that no one will let me if I dont know how to count money so I need to go to school to learn that. I hope Leon or Brigam is there.

>RM 40 304

>Dear diary. School is boring. The teacher just talks and we dont get to run around. Leon and Brigam arent there too. I dont like it.

>VM/59/304

>Dear diary, Im still in school. I made a friend named Silas, and, Brigam, is actually there! Just in another class. School is still boring.

>NM/34/304

>Dear diary, today I punched mommy. Leon and Brigham and Silas and I went to play in the snow but then we fell in the lake. We went inside Silas’s daddy hot springs though and it warmed us up. When I got home, mommy told me not to do that! I still dont get why but she said I needed to make some more friends. Mommy slapped me and said Im not allowed to leave for a week. I hate her.

At this point, I started getting bored and suspected there wasn’t much to glean from the early pages of this girl, so I began skipping around.

* * *

>RM/14/306

>Dear diary, daddy was sick today and we couldn’t go to play archery again. He still remembered it was my birthday though and bought me a sword! It’s small and fits in my pocket but it still cut me when I was playing with it. Mom got me a book, but it was boring. We go to church every week, why do I need to read about god at home too?

>RM/15/306

>Dear diary, today mom and daddy told me we were moving away. They said something about a contract and we needed to go far away. I cried, I don’t wanna leave Leon, Brigham, and Silas. I’ll miss them. I hope I can write them.

>BM/1/307

>Dear diary, we moved into our new house in Rubyll. It’s bigger than the old one, but I still miss it. My friends said bye to me yesterday and gave me their addresses so I could write them. Woodrow and me start school here in a fortnight so I don’t even get to have a long break from that. I hope I can make some new friends!

>GM/28/307

>Dear diary, I got in a fight with a girl in my class today. She tried to steal my lunch! Mom told me that’s not what girls do, but I don’t believe her. I miss my friends, none of the boys here will talk to me and the girls all think I’m mean.

>RM/15/309

>Dear diary, I’m ten now. Mom told me I’m going to the Church Academy when I go to school. I don’t want to though, whenever I see the priestesses they just seem so weird and boring. Erina told me she’s going to start learning to make shoes with her dad too, so once again I don’t have any friends. Well, in school at least.

>RM/40/309

>Yeah, these uniforms suck. How am I supposed to wear something this long and frilly? The teacher is mean too, she smacks us with a ruler whenever someone acts up. I hate it.

>YM/60/311

>It’s no fair!! Why do I have to keep going to school while Woodrow gets to start learning to inscribe gems like dad? They should know by now I hate this magical and religious stuff and the Academy hates me too! To get revenge, I stole some of Woodrow’s money and bought another sword, this one big enough I can actually learn to use to. I’ll have to send a letter to Leon and tell him about it. I bet Renault would like to see it to when I have the chance.

>NM/51/311

>My stomach hurts a lot…mom says I’ll be fine though.

>GM/1/312

>I graduate on the seventh day of the Yellow Moon from this damn Academy. Mom wants me to begin Acolyte training starting when I turn fifteen, but ha! I ain’t doing that. This whole priestess thing is a sham anyways, if a god exist he sure ain’t done anything for me. In good news at least, I won the entry match to the Rubyll Dueling Circuit at least. Not that my parents know that, of course, I’m going by a fake name to dodge it. Renault’s a few ranks ahead of me, but we’ll see how long that lasts.

>YM/22/312

>I beat Ren! Well, I think he was holding back a little but still. Afterward, he kissed me right there in the arena in front of everyone! I slapped him…I kinda liked it though.

>RM/16/312

>I told my mom my intentions not to start Acolyte training yesterday. She told me absolutely not, but she’ll give up eventually. To prove my intent, I cut my hair right in front of them. It felt good to be able to cut most of it off, the stuff gets in the way too much. They started yelling, but didn’t chase after me when I ran off. I spent last night with Ren…Nothing happened like that though!!! He said I looked cool with my hair short though, so it is a good look.

>BM/6/313

>Leon came to town today. He’s change a lot, but I suppose I have too. I introduced him to Ren, but I don’t think they liked each other…Leon called him a gutter rat and Ren called him a sycophant. I’m not entirely sure what that means though. I was glad to see him, though. Apparently he was going to be going away for a bit, but he gave me a messaging crystal. It will ping when he returns from his voyage he said, and we can start exchanging letters again then.

>GM/57/313

>I HATE MY MOTHER!! How dare she track me and humiliate me at my last match!! My career for the time being on the circuit is doomed now! Why can’t she just stay out of my life instead of pushing me to be someone I, quite frankly, can’t be?

>RM/15/313

>I don’t know how much longer I can take this, diary…I have no control of my own life here. If I so much as try to leave the house without a chapperone, I get punished for it. I just…grrr why??

>BM/1/314

>Ren somehow worked some of his moxie and snuck me out of the house last night. Since it’s the last day of the year, we went out into the hills and watched as the first moon of the new year began to rise. My heart was beating so hard, it was the single most romantic thing someone has done for me. After the Blue Moon was in the sky, he even told me something important: He found a way to escape my damn family…

>YM/23/314

>Apparently, Ren found the [ZC] scroll today, I love him so much. I’m supposed to claim it and get rid of my mother once and for all tomorrow. I’m so excited!

>YM/24/314

>I know, I wrote in you just a few hours ago, diary, but I’m just too happy. Mom and I are going to the library in just a few minutes!! I’ll write about what happens soon.

* * *

…And that was the last of it. Truth be told, I was having trouble parsing everything at this moment but it cleared up some things I’d already identified. From the sounds of it, she didn’t know what was going to happen exactly with the Zero Collector scroll either since she planned on coming back, so at least this wasn’t some conspiracy against me specifically.

More generally though, damn I don’t know what her problem was. I would kill to have parents who actually seemed to pay attention to me, instead of leaving me to my lonesome all the time. Even if they were on the helicopter side of things, having a relationship with them must be nice. Why waste it?

In any case this wasn’t a time for musing, “mom” was calling us down for dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

I was the third person to reach the dinner table. The two people I suppose I should start considering “my” parents for the time being having already beat me. As I took a seat, the way they stared at me with that blank expression reminded me of the rare meals my family had. I think those were the few moments where my parents realized truly how little they really knew about their child, trying to bring up topics they  _thought_  I liked. Usually, it ended with us all eating silently, glaring at our smartphones the whole time.

 

I suppose that wouldn’t be the case here.

“Are you actually eating dinner with us tonight?” Mom asked me, her surprise obvious.

“Should I not?” I said, probably a bit sharper than I intended.

“N-no, we’re glad! Usually you just run off to your room…It’ll be nice to have a meal with the family for once.”  Huh, no scolding on that. Was that the type of relationship they had then? I expected a bit more reproach.

I put up an uncomfortable smile and said “Yeah.”

When Woodrow came down, he shot me a glare as he took his seat. I’m sorry, dude, but you should have locked the door before doing something like that. Maybe he’ll learn to be more conscious from now on.

“Why’s Cadence in my seat?” he said out of the blue. Damn, they had assigned seats?

Mom just brushed him off though, “Be glad she’s eating with us for once.” That earned me another glare from him, not that it really mattered.

As the meal progressed in silence, I had to keep myself from giggling. Truly, some things never change. I’m in a parallel world with extraplanar bodyswitching magic and illicit fencing tournaments and here I am in the middle of an awkward family dinner. I guess the games skip over this part for a reason.

In the end, nothing ended up being said. I could tell her parents  _wanted_ to talk, but were too worried to say anything in fear I would leave. I guess I unintentionally power played them. It can’t be helped, I mused as I got up from the table. It shouldn’t be my problem anyways, although who knows how long I’ll be here…Maybe I can do some good for this girl while I’m stuck here. Maybe.

* * *

It was dark in my room. The only source of illumination it seems with the slightly yellow-tinted moonlight that filtered in from the window, and it was barely enough to dodge stepping on the mess of blades, let alone anything productive. It couldn’t have been more than an hour since the dinner, but in that darkness it felt like so much longer.

Even worse, I needed to pee. It wasn’t that I had been avoiding that specific issue, I’ve watched enough things with the typical ‘people get genderswapped’ plotline to get stressed about being a girl but just…look, I’m new at this and having to deal with the malaise in this house too made the idea even less exciting than it already was.

It wasn’t like I could avoid it though, so I crawled my way back across the room—still getting stabbed by something on the way—and pushed open the door. Mom was right in front of Woodrow’s door, a towel around her.

She looked at me, the mix of surprise and fear still on her face, “Oh, I was just about to call you Cadence.” Her hand was on that other kid’s door, I want to be clear. I tilted my head, waiting for an answer. “The heating crystal in the bath is still running if you wanted to go take one.”

How convenient. I’m seriously starting to believe someone’s intervening on my behalf.

“Thanks, I will,” I said as I walked past her, noticing she’d already stepped back from Woodrow’s door.

I must admit I was surprised by the relative luxury of the bathroom. Stone floor, possibly working plumbing—at least, it didn’t seem like we had to deal with the waste, a large mirror, a sink…Most importantly, a large tub. Larger than we had at home, at least. I had had to stop taking baths a few years back because I outgrew our tub, but even accounting for my newfound size difference I think I could fit comfortably in it.

Speaking of, after finishing my business, I finally got a chance to look at myself in the mirror. The impression I’d got from the diary and what I could see myself was that Cadence was not particularly attractive. But seeing her reflection, I don’t think that is true. It’s more that she didn’t know how to take care of herself.

I mean, what kind of girl cuts her hair like this anyways? I guess it’d be what they’d call a pixie cut back home, but even that requires combing once in a while to keep from becoming a greasy mob. It was a little unsettling to me actually, I was used to being able to hide behind my long bangs if I wanted to before. It was only compounded by her, uh, curious hair color. I hadn’t been able to see her hair since it was cut so short until now, and quite frankly I’m still not sure there isn’t some magic or something at play here.

Her mom had had jet black hair and her dad when I saw him had stark white, something I had just asumed was due to age. It wasn’t. Cadence’s hair was like a zebra or dalmation—white with thick stripes of black mixed in. I had to admit it was cool and would totally not be out of place in a game world, but in a place that presumably has similar genetics to us I have no idea how the Punnett Square leads to this. From what I’d seen of Woodrow, he’d taken after their mother too so it’s definitely some sort of mutation. In any case, it made her look more like an old man when combined with the shortness of the cut.

Moving on, her whole body had lots of small bruises, cuts, and scars. I’m sure it came with her hobby, but some of these honestly could fade away or get cleaned up with a little care. Not to mention the slight layer of grime all over her—I don’t think she was much for bathing, the weird pancake breasts that seemed to indicate they were being forced into something too small and would actually probably be cute if she stopped, the completely wild body hair all over the place that just needed some trimming, even the clothes she was wearing today were closer to rags than what any sort of girl with a sense of style would wear.

Hell, thinking about it, my body was more feminine than hers if for no other reasons than I had to shave my legs for swimming and I was too lazy to get a haircut. I was having trouble comprehending her thought process, honestly, doesn’t she know so many boys would kill to look like she did?

Why would she waste her body was the main question on my mind when I got in the bath. Or, tried to at least. I don’t know if it was just the heat of the bath itself or my more sensitive skin, but I burned myself trying to hop in at first. After a moment, I tried again and was successful in not burning myself. Go me.

I was rewarded with the first bath I’d had in three years. Thinking now, I had to admit I kinda missed it. Soaking in a quiet, warm pool of water from time to time was nice.

As the time ticked away in the peaceful abyss, a feeling of deep calmness unlike any I had felt before flowed through me. I could feel every motion of the water around, I could the slight tingling where my body brushed against chilling air, I could hear the slight pulsing of the small crystal as it circled the drain. It all felt so real, so natural. And as I lay in that state of transcendence, a single errant thought began to circle in my head.

As the water began to cool, I opened my eyes. The water was almost black from the dirt.


	4. Chapter 4

I was laying on my bed half-asleep when I heard a knock on the window. I started to get up to see what the disturbance was, but someone forced the window open themselves and started crawling through.

 

“Who in the hell..?” I said sheepishly, a little too tired to deal with this shit. At least I wasn’t lacking for weapons if it came to it.

When the man was finally through, he turned to me, smiling, “Is that any way to greet your lover?” I can’t imagine my eyes could look any less unimpressed, which presumably is why he added, “Well, soon-to-be, at least.” He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips. “I figured I’d surprise my dear Cade before the duel tonight. Was the demon properly exorcised?”

I tried to pull my hand out of his grasp, but instead he just pulled it closer and kissed it again. A slight edge of panic began to build in me. “Demon? Exorcism? I have no idea what you’re even talking about dude.”

He looked up from his disgusting gesture, still not releasing my hand from his grasp, “The scroll! Did you use it?”

Oh. He knows about the scroll. Then that can only mean he’s one person. I swatted my hand away, his grip loosening this time. “Yeah, I did.”

He looked concerned, his trimmed eyebrow upturned slightly, “And did it work? Is your mom gone?”

Wait, what? Was she trying to kill her mom? Things seemed bad between them, but certainly not murder-worthy. I shook my head, “No, it didn’t.”

“It didn’t? Did it do anything, then?” Could I tell him? Depending on how it works out, that could go either way. This man was my only contact at the moment, and if he decided that his, ugh, lover was gone I could truly be stuck here until I found a lead. But perhaps he could help fix this too. Uuugh, I was never good at things like this. “Well?”

In the end, I decided not to risk it. “Nothing. It didn’t do anything,” I said as sullen as I could.

He frowned too, his shoulders sinking just a little, “Oh. Niam hasn’t ever led me wrong before.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Hmm…you’re certain it didn’t do anything?” I shook my head again. After a moment, he finally stepped back and took a seat next to me, his hand resting on the small of my back. It was intensely uncomfortable.

“Are you alright, my dear? You’re acting cagier than normal.” He asked, his face worried.

“S-sorry..” was all I managed to get out as I silently cursed my meekness.

He grabbed my shoulder with his other hand, looking deeply into my eyes, trying to pull me into a hug. I couldn’t help but unintentionally recoil, tumbling onto my back once again. He laid down next to me, giving me a sympathetic smile.

“Something is clearly bothering you. What’s wrong?” Dammit dude, can’t you see how scared I am?

“N-nothing’s wrong. It’s just been a long day…” I said, turning away from him. He didn’t say anything.

Time passed without a word being spoken between us. Perhaps he thought it was poignant or emotional, but I just wanted him to get the hell out of here.

It must have been at least ten minutes before he broke the silence.

“You’re not Cade, are you.” His inflection raised as he spoke, but I knew better than to mistake it as a question. Dammit, did I already screw up that bad? I mean, keeping this secret was likely impossible with so many factors at play, but did his mind seriously run to ‘This person is pretending to be my girlfriend’ for the reason of something like this?

“If I’m wrong, please tell me, but you’ve made it incredibly obvious already.”

I growled a little under my breath, but it came out more of a hiss than I was used to. This was all just so frustrating! There was no point in hiding it, though.

“You got me. I’m not Cadence.”

He pulled himself back up into a sitting position, exhaling as he did so. I didn’t realize he had been as tense as I was. “Oh, good. Well, not good, but Niam is never wrong. Sorry for my, uh, presumption.”

I forced myself back up, thankful he seemed understanding enough. “No, I understand. You’re Ren, right?”

He nodded, “Ah, so you’ve done some research? Yeah, I am Renault,” he made to adjust the frayed collar on his jacket, his face turning smug, “Cade’s amazing suitor.” I was still unimpressed. Nice try on the relationship upgrade, too.

“I’m sure.” What followed was an even more awkward tension. Obviously, there were things that needed to get cleared up but neither of us knew how to start it.

I guess he decided on the up-front approach, because his way of breaking the silence was, “So, what’s your name?”

“P-pardon?” Dammit, more details? I-I…would he even be satisfied if I told him my real name? It’d instantly out me for being a dude. I don’t know if I wanted that.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, but you’re not Cade so it only makes sense that you give me a name to call you by.”

“No, it’s a fair request, but I-I’m, uh…” Cmon, cmon, think! I have to choose.

“What possible reason can you give me for not wanting to tell me?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…”

“You don’t want to tell me,” he snapped back, clearly unamused, “How am I supposed to trust you and help fix this if you won’t even do that?”

“I…fine! It’s Micha–”

“–Mycah!?” He cut me off mid-sentence. Actually a boon, I thought. I could work with that for now.

“Yes.”

He seemed stunned, the crossness from moments ago already turning into a mixed humor, “You’re screwing with me here, right? It’s more likely that all five moons fall from the sky than that the one person she swaps with is named that.”

I shook my head, “No, I’m serious. My name is Mycah.”

“Oh,” he was still laughing, “Mycah was—ha—her name on the Dueling Circuit—ha ha—preposterous!’

In case it wasn’t obvious, my name wasn’t actually Mycah. I didn’t have much attachment to my old name, truthfully. It was boring and normal, like everything else in my life. Now, a name like Cadence Pythia Gracile, that is a name I could get behind. But, if I had lost the rights to that name for now, Mycah is at least slightly better.

When he finally started to calm down, I cut straight to the heart, “So, what do you know about this whole thing?”

“You mean the scroll?”

“Yes, that and why we swapped places.”

He hopped up, doing a small pirouette as he did so, “Well, that’s easy. Niam said that scroll had an extremely rare spell meant to swap minds on it.”

“Swap…minds?”

He leaned next to the window again, the moon’s yellow light not complimenting him at all, “Or something like that, I can’t understand that magic-talk at all.”

“And, all of this was to make her swap minds with her mom? That doesn’t seem smart.”

“Not like that. Niam told me the spell should work and swap the minds of whoever was chosen, not the user.” Whoever was chosen?

“Waaait a minute, whoever was chosen, yes? Are you certain you didn’t misinterpret that?” I didn’t add that someone was chosen, presumably on both sides. Are these two really that dumb they didn’t get that?

“I,” he started to scratch at his chin, seemingly uncertain, “I am fairly certain. It’s not like me to make a mistake like that.” So yes, he is that dumb.

“Next question, where is this Niam? It sounds like he could solve a lot of this.”

“Weeell,” he stretched out his back, giving me his stupid grin again, “That’s where there’s a minor problem.”

“Which is…” It was my turn to start getting cross, although it didn’t come out as menacing as he did.

“He said he wouldn’t be back in town until the Violet Moon rises.”

“Translate that for me, my world doesn’t have moons like that.”

He seemed momentarily puzzled at that, but brushed back to his normal self before answering, “Right now is the middle of the Yellow Moon. In a little over a fortnight from now, it will set and the Red Moon will start to rise. After that is when the Violet Moon.”

“So, what you’re saying is I’ll be here for a while.” Somehow, that thought didn’t trouble me more than the fact I’d have to deal with this dude for that timeframe.

“That’s correct.”

I finally fell onto my back again, “Great, just great. Another month and a half of dealing with this.”

“Now, now, I’ll be helping you out. I want my Cade back as much as you do.”

“Sure, sure. I can ever rely on the great Renault,” I said, hoping the sarcasm was apparent.

He chuckled, smirking as he bowed in front of me, “You’re getting the idea, my dear Mycah.”

Kill me now.


	5. Chapter 5

I felt lighter when I woke up the next day. Ren had left as suddenly as he had came, citing the duel as reason to leave. He did promise to come back and give me a rundown on all the things I should know about Cade’s life tonight, but for today I was stuck.

 

I looked down at my clothes, still the tattered pants and tunic I had been wearing when I first brought over to this world. I had been so tired after everything that I hadn’t had a chance to change into something else after my bath.

Scanning the room didn’t help me find anything better to wear. Well, there was a winter coat with a large stain on it laying on the other side of the room, but that didn’t help me. Once again, I found myself wondering how someone lived like this, there wasn’t even a place to put clothes in here! It was then I decided what I was going to do today: clean this room. I had said I was going to help this girl out while I was here anyways.

Only problem was, there wasn’t even anything to put garbage in here either. I thought for a minute, and decided I could possibly solve both of these problems.

I went downstairs, praying mom was there. I found her kneeling in front of the fireplace, trying to light it up.

“Hey mom, have you seen any of my clothes?” I asked her.

Without even turning she answered, “How should I know, I haven’t seen you wear anything besides those scraps in weeks.” I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to notice.

“I want to wear something else, and I don’t have anything.”

She coughed, clearly annoyed with this line, “You’re the person who burned the last stuff I made you.” I should have expected that at this point.

“I’m going to go naked then.”

It took her a few moments to respond, “Well, I do have one thing that might still fit you.” Her voice sounded condescending, as if I wasn’t going to like it.

“What’s that?”

She tinkered with the fireplace for another minute, finally getting it lit. Then, she turned to me, smiling. “Your academy uniform is in my room.”Ah, that would bother this girl, wouldn’t it.

Thankfully, I’m me. I met her gaze, smirking. “That will work.”

I did a small spin once in it, watching as the dress flared out slightly. Looking in the mirror in mother’s room, I had to admit that it was cute. It was clear that Cade had grew in all directions since the last time she wore it, but it fit well enough and made her look way softer than the rags she was wearing before.

“Why are you smiling?” my mother asked from behind me, her reflected face frowning.

The question caught me unguarded. Why was I smiling? If I was trying to stay in character, Cade would have hated this. If I was me, then I should probably balk at this as an affront to my masculinity or something.

But that wasn’t true, huh? No, the reason I was smiling was obvious now that I thought about it.

I turned around to actually face her, my innocent smile turning dark, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

She covered her face with her hand, sighing into it, “Whatever, it’s too early to deal with your mindgames.”

“While we’re at it, do you have a sack or box or something? I’m gonna clean my room.”

She looked up at me again, “What are you playing at?”

“What do you mean?” I took a step closer, hoping I was doing this right, “Is there something wrong with wanting to be able to see the floor in my room?”

“N-no, of course not, Cadence. You’re just not acting like you usually do and I refuse to believe you’ve miraculously saw the error of your ways in two days. What are you trying to prove?” Oh, if only you knew.

I walked over and sat down next to her, trying to appear a little vulnerable. “I’m not trying to prove anything, mom. I just want to have some clean things.”

She looked at me, leaning forward slightly, trepidation across her face, “I really hope you mean that.”

That was my signal to lean over and hug her, “I do.”

It was an act of course, but not the way she thought it was. I felt a little bad still though, but as I hugged her…y’know, I think I was genuinely smiling.

And so I acquired not just some containers, but also a number of cleaning supplies. She even tossed me an apron of all things at me, presumably so I didn’t make a mess of this dress.

When I tied it on, I became even cuter. I had forgotten how much I liked dresses.

I know that sounds silly, but you try being a horny teen with no parental guidance. Of course I tried on my mom’s clothes! Her dresses not more than a handful of times though, they were too complicated to put on. Skirts and camisoles were easier.

I hadn’t done it recently, of course, I outgrew her by the time I turned 14. The appeal had mostly worn off anyways. Still, I think deep down I kinda wished I could wear them myself.

What a coincidence.

It was about a couple hours in to the never-ending mess when I heard a knock on the door. I set the sword I was currently polishing down on the bed and opened the door. I was greeted by some sort of cloth being thrown in my face. When I pulled it off me, it turned out to be a plain black skirt. It seemed a bit rudimentary and scrounged together, the stitching haphazard and mismatched at points.

Mom was in front of me, some other garment in her hand. “Since you’re working so hard, I made you something that should fit better.”

“Thanks,” I responded, both thankful for it and unamused by the method of delivery.

She held out the other garment, and off-white chemise. “You can have this too if you promise to throw those rags you were wearing away.”

I took it as well, nodding. She walked off, leaving me to alone again to change. I had to admit, they were more comfortable and maneuverable for sure, but nowhere near as cute as the dress. “Comfortable” and “maneuverable” were far more useful in this situation, however, so I folded the dress and set it on the desk and got back to cleaning.

A few hours after that, I was almost done. All the swords were in a bin on the other side of the room, the floor was clear, her few books and miscellaneous belongings had been organized on the bookshelf. I’d even managed to wash some of the caked-in gunk off the floor. Everything else was in a sack, ready to be incinerated.

That left one last task, the stupid pentagram on the door. I snatched the rag out of the soapy, brown water pail and got started.

It was quickly apparent that I wasn’t doing anything, no matter how much strength I put into the scrubbing. I looked back over at the pail. Yeah, it was probably too dirty at this point. I set the rag back down and took the pail back downstairs.

Not even heated bath water could wash it off though. What did she make this out of, anyways?

“Are you trying to wash that thing off your door, honey? Maybe you were serious about this.” I turned around, mom was at the top of the stairs.

“Yeah, I am. Nothing’s working, though.”

She didn’t say anything, her expression telling me I should already know what the problem is. Of course I didn’t.

When I didn’t respond, she finally responded, “You do know that spell is only reversible by the person who cast it, right?”

“What?”

She blinked, “Did you seriously not understand that when you cast it?”

I looked at the thing, wet and soapy but otherwise the same as it was when I got here. Was there seriously a spell on this? Seriously? How fucking petty.

“No, I knew that…” I said, trying to save some face.

She rolled her eyes, mumbling to herself and walking back down the stairs. When she got to the bottom, I could hear her yell back to me, “By the way, I’m gonna need your help cooking in a few minutes.”

Of course she is. Before heading down, I made a mental note to ask Ren about the door.


	6. Chapter 6

The male members of my adopted family came in not too long after, a little bit sweaty but otherwise fine. How gem inscribing gets sweaty is beyond me, though. In fact, I don’t even know how inscribing gems works, it was just a menu when I was last playing a game with that trade. I can’t imagine it’s particularly difficult though…

 

Nonetheless, they took a seat at the table in such a condition. Baffling, honestly, first thing I did when I got home from practice was shower. How do they even handle it?

When mom and I came into the kitchen with the pot of stew, both of their jaws dropped.

“My daughter, wearing a skirt!” dad said, turning to my mom, “What did you bribe her with to do that?”

Mom shook her head, setting the pot on the table, “Nothing. I’m still surprised myself.”

As I took a seat at the table, his eyebrow was raised at me in a curious fashion as if he was silently expecting a response.

“Is it so weird I want to wear a skirt for once?”

“Yes.” Was the cold response I got from Woodrow, suspicion dripping from his voice. Somehow, I had expected that.

I shot him a glare, “Well, tough.”

He seemed like he was gonna say something, but mom handing him the ladle silenced that. After that, dinner began again, more lively than before. They were talking about their day and clients, but it was boring and made little sense to me. I don’t think I would have been very welcome to converse anyways.

It was only after dinner, when I was laying bored once again in my room, that I was really interrupted next. I had went downstairs to pee when I ran into dad writing some report or invoice of some sorts at the table still. He looked over at me.

“Cadence,” he beckoned.

“Dad,” I came over at met his gaze.

He took a peak behind him, making sure no one was around, then in a slightly hushed tone asked, “Did your mother do anything to you today?” Do anything to me? W-was there something inappropriate going on in this family?

“What? No.”

He seemed surprised. “Are you sure? How she’d get you to wear a skirt then?”

Seriously? This again? For heaven’s sake, can’t you just leave a girl alone?

“She didn’t. I wanted to wear something besides those gross clothes I was wearing before.”

That seemed to surprise him more. “Uh, are you sure you’re my daughter?”

I just sort of blankly stared at him, slowly rolling out a “Yes..?”

He looked at at me, equally shocked, “Maybe my daughter is growing up a little then.”

I turned away from him, “Maybe.”

“You’re certain your mom didn’t goad you into this?”

“Absolutely.”

He shrugged, “So it is. Next you’re going to tell me you want to grow out your hair again.”

It was silent, he said it not expecting a response I think, but it didn’t take it that way.

“…What if I did?”

He chuckled, “I’d truly wonder what happened to my daughter.” It was on that note that our conversation ended and I skulked my way back upstairs.

At least he didn’t seem displeased. The hope right now is that after the initial shock of their daughter transitioning towards being a reasonable human, they’ll actually treat us seriously.

Still, it was awkward for now. I don’t think there was any other way, though. I can be a bit snarky and standoffish if needed, but I simply can’t manifest the angst that the real Cadence did. Even in my worst excesses, I don’t think I had the attachment to the things around me to be able to express such emotion. I mean, I can’t imagine many other people being sent into this situation and keeping as cool a head as I.

Rolling with the punches has always been my specialty in a way. In fact, I think deep inside of me I was enjoying this a little. Everything is so new, and well, the lack of expectations to perform here are nice. No boring sports, no boring school, I’m just here.

I need to figure out something to do for the next while, though. Sitting in here will kill me of boredom and I don’t think I’d hold my own well enough in a duel. Being a hoodlum holds very little interest, as well. Maybe Ren can give me some ideas on positive things for Cadence to pass the time.

My chest tightened thinking about that. For some reason, my mind was straying towards my other body. Was Cadence the type of person to take care of my body as I was her?

Somehow, I don’t think she was.


	7. Interlude 1: Sage's Dousing

When I stepped out of the changing room, my nose was burning from the foul scent of this world’s water. If it wasn’t for the groups already in the water, I would have imagined it more likely to kill me than to be inhabitable.

 

“Uh, Mike? You okay?” My apparent friend, Gordon, asked me. “You look creeped out or somethin’.”

“I’m fine,” I half-growled at him, heading towards the rest of the people wearing the same red-colored undergarments as us. Back home, swimming was done naked and I still don’t think I understood why they moved away from that here. Especially wish such…constricting garments. Bah, curse this world and it’s weird customs.

We hopped into the water with the rest of the team, and the one clothed person—our couch–started issuing tasks for us to practice. It shouldn’t matter too much though, with my fitness and a body actually capable of fighting I should undoubtedly succeed at these tasks.

…And if I didn’t, I certainly wouldn’t tell you. Doing training on land is more useful anyway. If I ever meet the boy whose body this is, I will personally kill him. Despite his natural advantage and training, my old body was almost as strong as he is. Pathetic.

“Yo, Mike! You’re still working out?” I looked up from the weight rack—it was Gordon again. I turned to the windows outside, it was dusk.

“Yeah.”

“Well, you’re finding another way home if you want to stay. I need to finish my Trig homework tonight.”

So, he was taking me home. A curious arrangement, back home I had to walk home myself. Then again, these ‘cars’ simplify thing some.

“Alright, let me go get changed.”

He nodded, “Hurry up.”

After getting dressed in my host’s constricting, awful button-up—it’s beyond me why someone would wear something so uncomfortable, especially with such garish coloring—I left the pool center and scanned the car lot for Gordon. He was leaning against a bright red, very sleek car on the other side of the lot.

When I was there, he started opening his door, condescendingly saying, “Hm, I expected you to take longer.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Usually you stop and buy something from the vending machine then talk to Cat or otherwise find some other way to make me spend another hour here.”

“Well, not anymore,” I scoffed, but he just laughed at that.

“It’s my turn to ask what you mean by that!”

“Girls are too much trouble. I have better things to do with my life than deal with them.”

He laughed even more at that, “…No homo, right?”

I have no idea what that means. From the way he said it, it seemed to be some sort of joke to which I don’t know the meaning. I made a note to check to computer for the definition of ‘homo’ when we got home.

For the time being, I just tried to laugh it off with an uncertain “Uh, yeah…”

He didn’t laugh after that. In fact, I had a bit of trouble hearing his voice over the rumbling of the car when he spoke next, “You’re not gay, right?”

“Gay?” I asked. I immediately realized shouldn’t have said something, I didn’t know what gay meant, yes, but in this situation there’s a lot of context I seem to be missing. Not that that’s ever stopped me before.

I didn’t get an immediate answer to my question. He seemed cross. “You’re fucking with me, right? I know you know what gay means.”

I blinked. Curse him, curse my speaking without thought. I coughed again, looking out the window on my side on the card. “Who cares anyways.”

“I do! No, well, I don’t care if you like suckin’ dicks, but I’d certainly hope my friend could trust me with that! Especially after he  _begged me to help him talk to Cat_!”

“I—I did _what?!”_ That’s so pathetic! It reminded of me of one of the guys back in my church academy, all teary-eyed as he came up and asked for my attendance at some party or gala or other boring rich people event.

I punched that guy in the face. Have a spine, dumbass.

Barring that, so being gay is sucking dicks? That was new slang to me too, but in context I think I understood it related to that thing currently in my pants. Not sure why that’s a big deal. Maybe if you were trying to breed or something, but Ren talked about his experiences from time to time so I figured it was just something men did to each other.

In fact, if everything had worked out as it should have, I would probably have been sucking Ren’s last night. Or something even more obscene, I had promised to give him my vir–

I cried out as his hand hit my shoulder.

“Mike, bro, you’re spacing out again.”

As I rubbed my arm, I said, “What did you say again?”

He only shook his head though, “Nevermind. We’re at your place anyways.” I looked out the window.

“So we are.” I started gathering my things.

As I opened the door and hopped out, he looked at me in the eye, his voice cold but calm.

“I’ll be online if you want to talk.”

I nodded and started walking to the door. Behind me, I could hear Gordon’s car give out a loud screech as he sped off.

Once I figured out which key went into the front door and made my way inside, I collapsed on the sofa in one of the side rooms. Somehow, I had made it through a day of this world’s school, if only barely. I had kept my head down, which had luckily been Mike’s normal state apparently. Besides Gordon, the only people who really talked to me were those two guys we had lunch with—I really should figure their names out tonight. I guess it got messy at the end there. Who would have thought swimming was so hard? Back home, we didn’t have any nearby bodies of water so I never really learned how to swim anyways.

I felt the phone in my pocket vibrate still laying facedown on the couch, I pulled it out of my pocket and checked the message.

>FROM: Mom

>Dad and I are going to be out late tonight, fend for yourself tonight.

Of course they are. When I figured out how to work this device last night, half the backlog of messages from her were the same text.

I wasn’t hungry, though. Too much effort and complex machinery I didn’t really feel like working on understanding right now.

No, I had things to research first, like all the slang I had learned and why being gay was a bad thing. Thank this world’s magic for letting me research this stuff without trouble.

I supposed I should research that Zero Collector thing too…I might wait a little longer, however. I missed Ren, but otherwise…swapping bodies with this Michael has solved all my problems.

From what little I know of him, I had the feeling he was doing better than I was at being myself too.


	8. Arc 2: Echoing Truth

I sighed as the steam enveloped me, my clothes discarded on the floor next me. Yes, if there was one thing I truly appreciated about this world, it was the quality of their baths.

 

The week I’ve been here has passed peacefully, after the first few days I think everyone had developed the tolerance to their daughter’s weirdness enough and I was slowly beginning to rebuild her relationships with her family. Excepting Woodrow of course, that brat seemed to have it out for me.

I hadn’t seen Ren in a few days, however.

* * *

“ _What_ are you wearing?” he had asked during the second visit.

“A skirt.” I had already dealt with this line of questioning three fucking times that day, I wasn’t going to deal with it again.

“But, t-that’s not how Cade dresses!”

I shrugged, “Who cares?”

He was flabberghasted, “I do. Why do you think you have a say here?  _Cade_ is the one who has to deal with the actions you take. Don’t do anything to stand out!”

“I already got rid of those scraps she was wearing before.”

“N-not that, you fool. Just, in the future can you _please_ be considerate of my lovely little rose?”

“Ha—Yeah, alright—ha, alright Ren.” Lovely little rose? That was so corny.

He was serious though, giving me a once-over before talking next, “Cade doesn’t look good in skirts.”

It was awkward after that. When he finally left, I don’t think I’d even been happier to undress myself.

* * *

I was staring at Cade’s body in the foggy mirror. I think I disagreed with Ren’s statement, Cade looked quite nice in skirts…I rested my hand on my hip, striking a sassy pose I had seen in an anime before.

My face was flush. Dammit, I looked good out skirts too. Wait, no,  _she_ looks good out of them.

I turned away from the mirror, scalding myself on the water as I got in way too fast. I shouldn’t be thinking like that, should I?The smart, sensible side of me said that I needed to dissociate from this body as much as I can, only act on thoughts that will positively benefit Cade once she returns.

In practice though, a dark thought had begun to cloud my judgment. As I fell more and more into domesticity, it was getting harder for me to maintain a distance from this life, this body…I was looking at my breasts.

She was pretty. Far prettier than I ever would be. Unless…

It’d be fine if I indulged myself until Niam returned, right? I was doing everything else right—her family and her were beginning to get along a little better even if they were hesitant to accept the change, I was taking care of basic things like hygiene better than she was before…I should be allowed to be a little selfish, right?

I rubbed my eyes, noting how pruned my fingers were. Maybe not here then.


	9. Interlude 2: Serum Visions

So that’s what that folder on his computer was for. I was a little surprised by how feminine he preferred his men, however…Were these even men?

This guy had problems.


	10. Chapter 7.5

“Havin’ fun there?”

I opened my eyes, seeing Ren’s smirk staring down at me. The flush across my face quickly turned to an embarassing blush.

“Why are you here…” I somehow muttered.

“Heh, I have to check up on my rose sometimes…” I had a bad feeling for a second…”I can water it if you want.”

Yeah, that did it. I pushed myself into a sitting position, trying to get as much distance between me and him as I could.

“I’d rather not.”

“Aww,” he fake-pouted as he sat down on the other end of the bed, “But I’d imagine any girl would be honored to have a prince like me descend on her.”

I rolled my eyes. “Nice try, but I’m not one of your ‘roses’.”

“If you say so. Can I ask??”

“Ask what?”

“Who are you a rose for?”

I paused, thinking this out. There was a lot of ways to take this. I really didn’t want to deal with his incessant flirting, but I think he thought I–’Mycah’–was a woman still, so I needed to be careful with my answer here. Although, even if there was some stigma part of me suspected it didn’t matter to him.

“I honestly don’t know. Probably a lot cuter than you.”

He stamped his foot, chuckling, “Good one, good one. Yes, I am not known for my ‘cuteness’.”

“Not many men are.”

“T’is true, t’is true.” His eyes darkened a little. “Nor is Cade.”

I looked down at my body again, glad I had facquired a negligee the night before so I didn’t have to continue to sleep nude.

“I would disagree with that.”

“Yes, yes, I think we’ve quite determined your thoughts on her.” His eyes traced down my arm, finally glaring at two of my fingertips. I moved to hide them under a blanket.

“I can’t help it if she doesn’t treat herself right.”

He was frowning now. “We both liked her as she was, I hope you know. _”_

I took that as my cue, a small sadistic urge starting to build up, “I’m sure that’s why she was so unkempt before I got here, huh.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,  _it was_.” He leaned just a little too close for comfort and loudly sniffed me. “The dirt complimented her. Part of the reason I was drawn to her in the first place.”

I shoved him away from me, “Well, I’m not going to waste her body that way. Sorry

He hopped off the bed. “Ah, you’re no better than her parents it seems.”

“I’ll have you know I’ve started to work on that issue, too.”

He started walking towards the window, “Yeah, yeah. At least leave an apology before she returns.” When he didn’t get an answer, he continued, “I’ll check back up on you in six days.”

Then, he climbed out the window and left me alone again.

Yeah, there was no way I was in the mood to continue what I was doing tonight. I leaned over, wiping off the dirt where he had been sitting, but a mark remained on the blanket. I pulled it closer to me, looking as best I could in the half-light. It was red.


	11. Chapter 8

I had to go blanketless that night. The blood wasn’t mine, which really only left one possible culprit. It only left me with even more questions about the auspices of my friend-and-or-rival, Ren. A pity I have no way of contacting or hunting him down on my own, not that it’s really my business anyways. I just wish he hadn’t bled all over my blanket.

 

I was hanging up laundry the next day when mom came up behind me.

“I’m going to the market, Cadence. Do you want to come?”

I turned to face her, “Sure.”

She smiled and nodded at me. It was a genuine smile no less, not the forced ones I had received when I got here. That made my heart warm just a little, that I was genuinely making some progress on this family’s issues.

We departed soon after. I’d been to the bakery a couple times, but that was just nearby. The market was at the far end of town, presumably near the library where I had initially been summoned to. It wasn’t more than a fifteen minute or so walk, but I relished every step of the way there.

As I’d learned, the Yellow Moon was the equivalent of our summer, something I relished for the first time in my life as I traveled through Rubyll. There was not a cloud in the sky, the sun and moon almost directly overhead. It was certainly hot, but not too much more than summers at home in Hartswell. Ren had said that no more than a day or so’s voyage from Rubyll was the seaside capital of this country—Pharenth, and the actual climate reflected that. Even if it was hotter than at home numbers-wise, there was a persistent coastal breeze that cooled the city in practice. It was pleasant.

As was the shape of my skirt billowing behind me. I don’t think I would ever get tired of that. As we passed through the streets, I watched the people around me. Ladies to and from the market with goods for the day, children playing in the alleys, the ever-present whispers of the conversations from those around us…It only got more lively the closer we got to the center as well. Ah, the real thing was so much better than a game’s recreation. Although I mused that if this was a game, I’d be a mere NPC anymore. A far cry from what I’d expected when I first went to that website, but not a bad one I think.

* * *

“Eleven Drachmar.” The butcher told us when we pointed at some bison meat.

“Nine.” My mom fired back. The butcher tugged his beard, trying to look uninterested. Somehow, it worked on her. “Fine, ten drachmar.”

The butcher smirked as took the ten coins from my mother. Somehow, I think she wasn’t a great negotiator. We walked on, going down the winding paths for who knows what when I heard someone call out to me.

“Cadence! Caadence!” I turned my left, and a young light-haired woman was staring at me from a stall. She ran over to me.

“Cadence, I haven’t seen you in forever!” she said to me, grabbing my hand as she did. I looked over her. She was dressed simple working clothes, streaks of black on the leather apron she had tied around her skirt. I could smell the vague scent of tar and leather on her. From both how she acted and her face, she seemed close to me in age. Her hair was tied back in a short blonde ponytail, blowing in the wind as well.

In short, she was kinda cute. I still didn’t know her, though.

“Heeey, yeah, it’s good to see you!” I tried to play it off, but she seemed a little confused. Thankfully, I watched as a shadow stepped up behind me.

“Good day, miss Cothdell.” It was my mother.

The girl looked up at her, “Oh, good day Lady Gracile. I didn’t expect to see either of you here today, let alone both.” She pulled me with her, “Come in!”

When we got out of the sun into the booth, there was another, older, woman inside leaning over a half-formed piece of leather. All around her was footwear in different stages of completion.

The woman looked up, “Oh, Erina, what’s—OH!” She straightened up, smiling, “If it isn’t the two Gracile ladies. What brings you in today?”

My mom smiled, walking closer to the older woman, “Actually, your daughter flagged us down. We were just doing the weekly shopping.” Lady Cothdell shot her daughter a look, but my shook her head. “No, it’s quite alright. We’re in no rush. How are you?”

They began to prattle on, but Erina tugged at my hand again, “Want to go walk around outside?”

I looked over at my mom, and she smiled at me. O-oh. I don’t think there was an easy way out of this. Not that I really wanted to, Erina was rather pretty and it would be nice to talk to someone besides family and Ren.

“Sure.”

She untied her apron and tied it to a hook, then led me outside, twirling into the sunlight.

“Aaah, free.~” She muttered to herself.

“Didn’t want to be in there?” I said, walking past her. She motioned to hop along.

“Being around my mom all day? No, not really.”

“I know the feeling.”

“I’m sure you do, Renault was—hey, wanna go get something to eat?”

“Food? I don’t have any money.”

She shook her head, five drachmars appearing in her hand seemingly out of nowhere, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, if you say so.”

She hopped forward again, “Let’s goooo~”

“You’re certainly in a good mood.” I said, giggling at her behavior.

She turned around, continuing to walk backwards, “Why shouldn’t I? We all can’t be stonefaced and angry all the time like you.”

“Hey now! I’m not like that anymore!”

“Hmm,” she scratched her chin, as if deep in thought, “You’re right! The Cadence I knew would never be caught dead looking that feminine.”

I sighed, “Everyone says that.”

She frowned, then faced forward just soon enough to dodge bumping into a post, “What changed?”

I tried to frown, but I think her positivity was rubbing off on me, “Quite a bit. I’m practically a different person.”

“Good! The old Cadence was mean!” She turned a corner, leading me down an alley.

“You’re not wrong. I worry she’s going to come back, though.”

She hopped, once again spinning to face me in mid-air. Her finger was on my lips.

“Don’t think like that! I know Cadence can do anything she wants when she puts her mind to it.”

I leaned backwards, putting a little distance between me and her hand. “But it’s like I said,I’m  _not_ Cadence.”

Her head somehow managed to make it’s best impression of a right angle. “But if you’re not Cadence, who are you?”

“Who am I?” Why was I even having this conversation anyway? There’s no rational reason to do so, especially with someone as unpredictable and downright  _weird_ as her.

“Because you sure look like the pretty Cadence I used to look up to.”

“W-what? P-p-pretty?”

Her right hand still outstretched next to mine, she used her other hand to knock on a door I hadn’t noticed before. It opened a few seconds later.

A surly-looking man was standing there, frowning.

“Oh, it’s you two. Come on in.” He said, stepping aside.

Erina led me inside, through a winding hallway and into a large hall. I didn’t manage to catch a good look from the outside, but it seemed almost larger than the building itself.

She grabbed my hand again, taking me towards a secluded table in a corner.

“Mhm! Didn’t I always used to say that in academy?”

“U-uh, did you catch a word of what I just said?”

“Word of what?”

“That I’m not Cadence.”

She scratched her head, “I don’t get it.”

“I wasn’t here for your days in academy.”

“Nooo..?”

“Not at all. I don’t remember much before last week.”

She looked down at her lap, pondering.

Another man came by, perhaps noticing the awkwardness. He was dressed in a loose-fitting robe of sorts, more of an evening gown if I was being honest. Most strikingly however, he wore a mask on the left side of his face. When I squinted, the mask didn’t have an eyehole on it. Overall it seemed rather decadent and out of place with the rest of Rubyll.

“Welcome.” He said, not a hint of emotion in his voice.

“Hey, Thrax! I’ll–” Erina looked over at me–”No, we’ll have what we usually have.”

“Certainly.” the man said in that inhuman voice again before slinking away again.

I think Erina noticed my blank, confused look at him, because she next said, “You don’t know where we are.”

I shook my head, “No, I don’t.”

“Well, who are you then?”

It was then I noticed I had been chewing on my index fingernail into a point. Dammit.

“I-I’m…It’s hard to explain.”

“Why’s that?” She asked, staring at me with her large eyes.

“I…” I poked my index finger with my thumb, feeling a bit of pain from the nail I sharpened. Why was I having trouble with this too? She was clearly open-minded at this point, I could just say  _My name is Michael and I accidentally swapped bodies with Cadence_  and she’d believe it. But…ugh…it just didn’t feel right. Perhaps it was just through the repetition of the last week, but  _Cadence_ just felt more natural, more  _real._

Then it came to me. That was the reason I had so much more trouble with this question.

“I like being Cadence.” Even if I was trapped inside doing chores for the past week, the haze I seemed to live in didn’t exist here. I seemed to find pleasure in the small moments of this place, this body, that I didn’t before.

She blinked, confused. “Then why did you say you weren’t Cadence in the first place?”

“I-I don’t know. You just seemed so forthright, I didn’t want to lie to you.”

“But…If you like being her, then why not just be her? No one would know.” She was leaning over the table now, incredibly close to my face. I felt small in her presence.

“But what about the old Cadence? What if she wants her body back?”

“What if she doesn’t?”

“There’s no way she’d want to be–” I was cut off by her giggling in my face. “W-w-why are you laughing?”

She leaned back from me, grabbing a small glass next to her—when was that delivered?–and sipped from it. After swallowing, she exhaled.

“You’re much prettier than the old Cadence.”

I wish I could say I snapped back or something cool, but in this weird girl’s presence the only thing I managed to do was shrink back and feel blood rush to my cheeks.

She continued, “The Cadence I know never second-guessed herself to a fault. She definitely wouldn’t be stammering over herself worrying about what other people wanted.” Although she said it so calmly, I could sense some negative emotion under that—hurt?

“Well, I’m not like that.”

She gave me a confident smile again. “And that’s why you’re prettier than her.”

That just made me sigh, defeated. “Thanks, I guess.”

When I looked up again, she had pushed a glass in front of me, beckoning me to drink. It tasted like grape juice, but wholly far more bitter than it had any right to be. I barely managed to stomach a sip.

“Is this wine?”

She nodded. “Never had it before?” I shook my head, which seemed to amuse her but she didn’t say anything more.

The mysterious man walked by again a few minutes later.

“Any other requests?”

“No no, we’re good for today Thrax.” Erina told him, presenting the coins to him.

He took them one at a time, rubbing his fingers against each in turn. When satisfied, he only said, “Certainly,” and walked off again.

We sat for a few minutes longer, finishing off the wine left to us—or, rather, I watched her finish off the wine. When done, she hopped up and led us back out into the alleyway.

“What was that place?”

“Hee hee~ It’s a monastery.”

“That was a monastery.” I said flatly.

“A Masclean one, yes.” She pointed at me again, “You were the one to introduce me to them.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t surprised.

“Ah, all she wanted was for Renault to swindle some drachmar from me.”

“Ha!” That was actually surprising, Cade having the guile to pull off something like that. It was probably Ren’s idea. “You’re telling me a monastery deals in swindling as well?”

“A Masclean one does!”

“So they do.”

She turned away from me, bouncing off one foot onto the other as she made her way out of the alley, “Maybe one day I’ll show you.”

I smiled, “You’re a strange girl.”

“No stranger than you, Cadence.” I guess she had a point.

* * *

Later, on the way home, my mother was walking behind me when she said, “You’re in a good mood.”

“It was nice to see Erina again.” I told her, trying my best to stop from mimicking the girl’s infectious gait right there.

“I’m glad. If you get rid of that seal on your room, perhaps I can let you go see her more often…” she mused.

Right, that. I had forgotten about the thing on the door. I had learned from Ren that it was actually a seal preventing anyone but whoever’s blood was used from entering the room. Of course, he neglected to tell me how to remove it. At the time, I was more impressed that Cade managed to make it after letting so much blood.

I guess now I had to work on it.


	12. Chapter 9

I wish I knew where to start. Cade didn’t own any materials on magic, and the only thing I had was the [Zero Collector] scroll. Ren was unlikely to help as well, which really left only one person I could turn to for possible advice.

 

But meeting her was the entire reason I was doing this in the first place.

I snatched the [Zero Collector] scroll off the shelf, unfurling it across my desk. Perhaps I could work backwards from this. Of course, nothing had changed from the last time I opened it—the words on the page still in their same place, beckoning me to have a great life…

There was one thing that stood out though. The title. Everything in the ‘body’ of the scroll was written in Pharenthian script, but the title of all things was in English. This title was the only thing I had seen in English in the time I had been here, something that couldn’t be coincidental.

As I stared at it, questions came to mind. And as the questions came, I had a feeling I could learn some answers if I said the right things. All I needed was for that fool to come visit me again.

* * *

While I was lying in the bath that evening, I was in an uncharacteristically optimistic mood. I got to leave the house for once, I had something resembling an actual goal now, I might even have a friend…

But above all else,  _someone called me pretty_. I know it’s a little thing, but it stood out. No one had ever called me pretty or beautiful back home. Well, mom said I was handsome, but that didn’t count. Handsome is something you say to awkward boys to make themselves feel valuable, not any sort of desirable trait.

I mean, objectively speaking I do think my old body was ‘beautiful’ by some number. I was tall, somewhat fit, broad shouldered. If I had cut my hair, I’d have that jock-ish look down pefectly. But none of that matters if you don’t  _feel_  it, which I didn’t. Talking to girls was hard enough, let alone flirting or anything difficult.  
I wonder now if Cade felt the same. Certainly, our circumstances were quite different, but everything I’ve seen has pointed to a seriously pained, muted individual. She just had the inner strength to fight her fate, unlike me. Even if it was clear that fighting so hard did nothing positive for her in the end.  
I thought back to my conversation with Erina. I had told her I liked being Cadence…Perhaps Cade liked being me—no, Michael?

Even if we did, could we really stay this way forever? What about the other people in our lives? Would our parents be fine with living with a perfect stranger forever? What about Ren? Gordon?

But another thought cut off the first. I had admitted already that my parents barely knew me, and it was incredibly clear that I was far better suited to Cade’s than she was. That only left friends and lovers. I didn’t know enough of what Cade was doing as me to know what Gordon might think. But Ren…Ren would disapprove.

Was that one person’s unhappiness enough to upset mine? I…couldn’t answer that easily, it just made me scared.

I chuckled. Wasn’t this line of thought what Erina had said made me prettier? Oh, if only she knew the whole story.

I hopped out soon after, in as pleasant a mood as when I got out before.

I was curious what she had meant by pretty. The obvious answer was that it was a vague metaphor for my character difference, but…that girl was weird. And pretty too.

My chest tightened. I would need to learn the sexual mores of this world somehow…I mean, going by Earth’s terms, I guess for the time being I was a lesbian.

As I undressed for bed, I smirked. Time to finish what I started last night…

* * *

In the end though, our next trip to the market came first. It had been ten days from that last disastrous visit, and I was starting to worry about it. He seemed much more likely to know about the fundamentals of magic that Erina, but if I had to make do for the time being I guess she’d probably at least fill in  _some_ gaps.

We were sitting at that secluded table in the “monastery” when I pulled out the scroll from my pack, unfurling it across the table.

“Ooooh, what’s this?” she said, looking all over it.

I pointed at the title. “Can you read this?” She shook her head. I brought my hand down towards the body of the scroll, ‘my’ description and the final statement under my fingertips.

She looked over it for a minute, then looked up, her faced scrunched in a confused frown. “So you were telling the truth about not being Cadence!”

“Did you think I wasn’t?”

“Nonono, I figured it was true but I was confused how it came to be!”

My smile was tempered with a bit of curtness. “Well, now you know.”

She seemed to brush that off, continuing, “But the one thing that’s confusing is that this thing is describing a boy.”

“I was hoping you’d miss that.”

That only made her eyes grow wider. “So, you are a–”

“–I don’t know!” I exclaimed. This whole line of reasoning made me really uncomfortable for reasons both obvious and not. She did her trademark head tilt, as if her brain had seemingly exploded or something. It quickly became obvious she was waiting for some sort of explanation.

“I-I told you last time, right? I  _like_ being Cadence–” I caught a fiery glint in her eyes, which I knew I had to quash, “Not like _that_  either. It’s hard to explain.”

As she slowly un-tilted her head, she began to smile again. “Alright, Cadence.” There wasn’t a hint of admonishment in her voice.

“W-wait, that’s it?”

“I told you last time I liked you more than the old Cadence, remember?”

I could tell my face turning red again around this girl, “T-then why did you even say anything?”

“I was curious~.” She chided, bouncing back to normal immediately. Damn this girl.

I brought us back to the main topic, though. “So, you can’t read the title of this scroll?”

“No, I cannot.” She turned away from me, her profile looking far more coy. “Besides, Cadence was the one who went on to academy.” Academy? Wait then that means…

“So you recognize this script then?”

“You don’t? Even if you are not from around here, I would imagine anyone in the world should recognize the language of magic.”

My jaw dropped. “The language of magic?!”

That seemed to shock her out of her coy state, turning back to face me again. “You did not know that?”

“No. I’m not from this world.”

She blinked.

Then again.

Then again.

Then again.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!?” was finally what she decided on.

“From my home, that,” I pointed to the title again, “Is our normal alphabet.”

She collapsed onto the floor in the most over-the-top display of non-understanding I’d seen in a long time. Deep down, I was more amused I managed to unnerve her like so.

* * *

When she finally got up again, she briefly apologized to Thrax for her display and sat down across from me. I could see a thousand questions burning in her eyes.

“So, you can read that?”

“Yes. For example, that title says [Zero Collector].”

Her hands were on the table, uncharacteristically still. “Oh.”

“However, in my world, ‘magic’ doesn’t exist. That is just the language we speak, like how we’re speaking now.”

“Oh.”

“That’s why I asked you about this. It seems extraordinarily unlikely that our worlds would share a language.”

“Oh.”

“I will admit that I’m struggling to believe it’s true. Especially if it’s something as important as  _magic_.”

“Oh.”

“I’m glad to have noticed it. Else I had no leads on how to solve the current—You’re not following me at all.”

“Oh—Ow!” I gave her a slight kick under the table, jolting her back to consciousness. “No, I mean, you’re right.” She turned her head bashfully away, “I don’t know much about magic, though.”

“Because you didn’t go to the Church Academy?”

“Yes. You don’t know anything, do you?”

“I do not.”

“Only ordained acolytes of the Church of Oryenna are allowed to learn magic.”

“The Church of Oryenna?” I rubbed my head. This was getting complicated.

“Yes. You know, the religious people who aren’t,” she waved an arm around us, “Here.”

I slid backwards in my chair. “I haven’t left the house except to come to the market since I–”

There was a slight cough. I turned, and Thrax was there—the man always had a way of sneaking up on you.

“Please do not speak the name of the Foul in our establishment.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Just that.” He said before stalking off again. I looked at Erina for some insight.

“The Masclean Sect and the, uuummm…” she trailed off, trying to figure out how to word the rest of her sentence.

It didn’t matter though. “Don’t bother, I think I get the picture.” She let out a sigh at that.

“Getting back to the point, I presume you don’t have to be ordained to learn magic.”

She frowned again, “N-no, you don’t…They don’t tend to like that though.” From the way she was acting, I suspected that I wasn’t going to get much more out of her. I do get the feeling that Ren would help more here, however. That Niam guy certainly didn’t sound like an acolyte of any sort of church, and he clearly had something to do with magic. Failing that, well, it sounds like I had one easy route to start learning magic.

“I see, thanks.” I told her, rolling the scroll back up and setting in my pack again. Then, I leaned back on the table, meeting her eyes finally. “So. What now?”

I watched as she shook her head for a moment, coming out of her weird jumpy state from earlier. When done, I could tell she was thinking like she did last time.

“Hmm? You have no more questions?”

“Not about that stuff, at least.” I replied.

“Then, what  _do_ you have questions about?” She was grinning.

“I am curious why you took your friend’s disappearance so well, for one.”

“Well,” She started, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger absentmindedly as she did, “I like this Cadence more.”

“Yeah, but it’s still seems rather strange to not bat a single eye.”

Erina shrugged, “Cadence wasn’t a nice person.”

“Heh, so I heard.”

No one said anything after that. We were staring at each other, sharing our small meal but otherwise…It was almost awkward. There was a new sort of sensation in the air, like both of us had things to say and ask but can’t get out.

It was interesting watching her, though. In these quiet moments, I noticed that she tended to fidget—constantly smoothing her skirt, playing with her hair, biting her fingernails, or other such things. My first visit with her had led me to believe she was quite assured and secure in herself, but under this sort of scrutiny I think I see her real figure.

But I couldn’t seem to tease her. I opened my mouth to try, but my own sense of…whatever it was prevented me. Eventually, though, she got up the courage.

“So…”

“yes?”

“We should get going.”

“Probably so. We’ve been here quite a while.”

But neither of us moved. I think we were both blushing, though.


	13. Chapter 10

“I want to start acolyte training, mother.”

 

She blinked twice before setting down the small book she was reading, silently beckoning me to sit down at the table as well. I did so.

“Am I hearing this right? My daughter actually wants to do what we asked?” Her voice was full of trepidation.

I drummed my fingers across the table. “Are you surprised.”

“Hmm, no, I suppose not. You have become quite dutiful as of late.”

“Thank you.”

“I hadn’t expected this, however. You haven’t even gotten rid of that damnable  _thing_ on your door.”

“Well, that’s…different,” I said, trying to brush off that matter. I mean, it was part of the reason I needed to go to this anyway.

“Yes, yes, I know. You’re still plotting something. A chance to start dueling again?”

“No! I have no interest in that stuff anymore!”

She paradoxically frowned at that. “See, from what I know of my daughter, she would never give that up. You’ve been good lately, but no one changes that dramatically in less than a moon’s time, dear.”

I felt my fingernails digging into the table. “Well,  _I_ have.”

She met my gaze. “Then tell me why. What caused that change?”

Our eyes fought for a minute, neither of us willing to break it off as I pondered how to answer. Perhaps it’s silly after I explained myself to the other two, but I just couldn’t to her, the best case scenario would be she thought I was joking.

I looked away in the end. “I can’t answer that.”

“I thought so.”

It was quiet again, stuck in a space between words. I was still trying to think of an excuse, but my mind was blank. The creaking of the chair as she leaned back made me look up again.

“Luck for you, even if my daughter is tricking me like usual, if it involves  _actually doing what she’s told,_  I can’t protest too much.”

“W-wait! Does that mea–”

“–Yes. But if I hear you’ll do anything to besmirch our name…”

“I won’t.”

“ _But_  if you do…”

“I get it, I get it.”

She smiled. “Good.”

* * *

I thought that that was surprisingly painless as I retired that night. I don’t know what all I expected, actually. I mean, I was doing exactly what she wanted me to do.

This left some major changes in Cade’s life, however. In the event we switched, what would they think of that? The thought didn’t seem to bother me as much anymore. My rational mind told me I should be bothered by that, but at the same time I’m so past it. I’ve spent close to a Earth-month here in Rubyll now and have acclimated decidedly well. I have a family that actually gives a shit about me, an…interesting…friend, a somewhat-spurned lover,  _magic._ Even something like as ephemeral as expectations here just feels better.

 _I don’t want to go back_. I feel like I’ve said it before, but the desire has continued to grow. Even if all I was was a domestic girl like I am now, I think I’d enjoy it more that becoming President back on Earth. The calmness I’ve found here outweighs any sense of glory or accomplishment back home. The reason why is stupid, though.

The protagonists of the genderswapping stories I used to read would be ashamed that I gave up my masculinity so easily, but the truth is I didn’t have much to give away in the first place. I couldn’t be called effeminate—I had friends who were far more than I—but I was defined by my lack of identity. It’s probably why I could never interact with girls without coming off as a creep, they could see the emptiness behind me. It’s probably why I could never get along with most guys either, their antics bothered me on something of a subconscious level.

But now. Now, I had everything I ever wanted. Commiting myself to being Cadence Pythia Gracile had so far blessed me with far more wonder and life than I had before. To go back to my old shell, well, it would hurt a lot. Arguably even more than before, having seen the world through these eyes now.

I don’t know if I could bare that thought.

I rolled over in my sleep, feeling a ray of moonlight shine down on me. Somehow, that was comforting.

* * *

 

The Yellow Moon hung low in the sky on the day my mother called me to the front door. I walked down there, and looked over to see her at the main doorway. Erina was next to her.

“Erina? What’s going on?” I asked her, surprised to see her here.

She looked to my mom, who just gave her some sort of tacit approval to talk. She smiled.

“My dad needs to take some measurements?”  
“Measurements? What for?”

My mom cleared her throat, eyeing me suspiciously. “Apparently, miss Cothdell here was informed of your intentions within the church and told her parents. They want to congratulate you with a new pair of boots.”  
“Oh.”

Erina nodded. “Yes, they do. They sent me to grab you.”

“Um, alright…” I kinda trailed off, rather unbelieving of this whole story. “Let me go grab my boots and we can head over.”

A few minutes later, we were gone, my mom warning me to ‘Be smart’ as we left.

Erina was acting weird—she wasn’t doing her hopping-skipping-walk thing, but instead walking like normal person—a quite quick one at that. She wasn’t really interested in talking either. I was having to jog to just keep up with her.

“You okay, Erina?” I called from behind.

She stopped, myself barely avoiding running into her. “Yes, I am.”

“You’re acting weird.”

“I found ‘your’ idiot boyfriend.”

“Wait, what?”

She spun back around, walking back in a direction. “Yeah, he’s at the Monastery.”

“…And?”

“I think you need to meet him.”

* * *

I found him laying down across a bench in the monastery, his right arm a red and yellow mess. It stunk of infection too. Nonetheless, he only seemed displeased when he saw me.

“Well, hello there princess.” It sounded like a joke, but his tone made it sound uncomfortable.

So I treated it as such. “Uh, what happened?”

“Oh nothing, just had to dodge town for a bit.”

“Dodge town.” I repeated, unamused. It reminded me of something though, “So I assume this is why you left a bloodstain on my bed?”

“Dammit, I was hoping that wouldn’t happen.” He said through grit teeth.

“If the wound was that large, I’m surprised you didn’t bleed more.”

“It wasn’t this bad when I stopped by there.”

“Dumbass.”

He stretched his good arm in a motion that I wasn’t sure was intended to be cool or not. “Listen, when you’re a man like–”

“–I’m gonna stop you right there.” I said, looking over my shoulder at Erina. She was standing on the other side of the hall still. “Why did you even bring me here?”

“You’re closer to him than I am.” She said, although her body language insisted ‘this ain’t my problem’.

“Barely.” I said, rolling my eyes. I turned back to Ren. “Seriously, what am I doing here?”

He was squinting past me at Erina. “That was another thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen. I’m surprised you two are talking again…” He lingered on that statement, as if it was a signal for me to get. I sat there though, not interested in playing these games. After a moment, he yelled over to Erina. “Can I have a moment alone with my girlfriend.”

I could hear Erina giggling behind me as it dawned on me what he was trying to say. Then, I slapped my head.

Ha! She knows I’m not Cade, you fool.” I laughed in his face. The grimace I got in return was worth it.

“Why would you tell her!?”

I shrugged. “She seemed trustworthy and I needed someone to talk to.”

Ren moved his bloody arm, trying to sigh into it. The scream I heard when he moved his shoulder was enough to stop him, thankfully.

Out of nowhere, Thrax seemed to show up next to me, holding a tray with some cloths and alcohol. He held them out to me.

“If I must.” I groaned as I took them. Then I smirked. “Not sure how much I know about cleaning wounds though.”

“I’ll do it myself, you–” he said, as he tried to reach out for the tray.

I pushed backwards in the chair out of his range. “Nuh-uh. I was dragged over here, I want to hear this story at least.”

* * *

 

“…Thankfully, Cormag found me and dragged me here.” Ren said. He tried to rest his arm on his knee, but recoiled in the pain immediately. I wasn’t sure how much good I’d done to tell you the truth. Besides emptying an entire bottle of alcohol and wrapping it up, I had no real medical training.

“I see.” Honestly, I had regretted my decision to listen to him immediately. It had been meandering not just from his cries of pain—dude had a surprisingly low pain tolerance—but his odd, uneven pace that could never decide on a real timeline. He needed to stop flirting all the time and learn basic sentence syntax. Erina had had the best idea and disappeared a while back.

To spare the long story, apparently before visiting me that last night, he had lost a duel. Somehow that spiraled into him stealing some dude’s britches and they had a turf war of some sort? There was a magic scroll or something in there too. I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter. Point being, he had to go into hiding and elected not to deal with the giant festering wound on his arm.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“ _You’re_ going to go back to your house and not cause any more problems. I’m going to go bribe an acolyte to heal this wound for me.”

“Heal it?”

“Sorry love, but this mess of cloths you call a bandage doesn’t have anything on magic.”

The gears in my mind were turning. Could I turn this into an opportunity?

“Can I come along?”

He looked confused, “I don’t really need your help.”

“No, no, not that. I…do you know anything about magic?”

“Only what Niam taught me. Which really only amounts to creating a light source.”

I nodded. “Useful.”

“Indeed, much better for midnight rendezvouses than a torch or light crystal.” I wasn’t sure whether I should be happy or sad that he had reverted back to his normal behavior. Something told me I should be both. But, he did give me something there.

“Can you cast it right now?”

“Why’s that?”

“I want to try something.”

With his good hand, he scratched the week’s worth of stubble on his chin. “I could, but unless you want to drag me all the way to the academy or church I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“I don’t think I have the strength for that.”

“Cade did.” He said, as if that meant anything.

“I don’t really care. Point being, I want to see a magic spell cast.”

He tapped his foot against the ground a couple times before hopping up.

“Fine fine, have it your way. You’ll just follow me anyways, right?” I nodded. “Whatever, just stay close and don’t do anything that would draw attention to you.”

As he made his way to the entryway clutching his shoulder like some sort of beggar, I had a feeling I would blend much better than he did. I looked back as I followed him, feeling a little bad I was leaving a bit of a mess for Thrax to clean up without compensation.


	14. Chapter 11

The Rubyll Oryannan Academy was surprisingly not far, only a couple streets past the library where I was initially brought to this world. Not that I could see the actual academy over the large walls that surrounded it.

 

“I expected the Academy to be a bit less dour.” I mused to Ren.

“Wait ’til we’re inside.” He replied, snickering.

He eventually stopped a few yards from the gate.

“Follow my lead.” He said, before walking up to the open gate, suspiciously glaring from side to side. I walked past him through the threshold, immediately feeling more at ease by how bright and kept it was. I imagined if I came at another time, there would be a lot of bustling around the fields. At the moment, I could see a few classes being taught on some nearby pavilions and a relative silence.

I started walking off the path towards one of said pavilions, but Ren’s voice stopped me.

“Hey! Don’t go over there!”

I looked back at him. “Why? You need help.”

He shook his head, “Not like that! They’re more likely to throw us out that way.” I kinda stared blank-faced at him. “No, seriously. We’re not on, uh, the best terms with Academy.”

I sighed, walking back onto the path. “You could have told me that sooner.”

“Why do you think I told you to follow my lead?”

I shrugged and walked past him, heading towards the large building in the center of the garden. He was muttering some complaints about the priestesses who ran the academy were fools or crossed him or something, but whatever. I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.

Once we made it to the building, Ren tugged my shoulder. “Not this entrance.” He led me around the corner towards a back entrance. He tugged at the door to no avail.

“Damn. They’ve gotten wiser.”

“Have they?” I asked, bored.

“Yeah, usually this is open and I can go see him. Guess they caught on…”

“So they did.”

He tried to lean against a wall, but immediately winced and slid down onto the stone. “It’s no matter. He should come out here in a little bit.”

I didn’t really feel like sitting next to him at the moment, so I just leaned on the wall and soaked in the tranquility. Ren didn’t interrupt me.

* * *

“ _You!”_

We turned our heads back towards the corner we had come from, to see a…boy? Girl? From their voice I would have said male if ever barely, but their body was rather androgynous, the blond braids, and slightly larger than average bust gave me pause. They didn’t seem much older than us, at least.

I just up to meet them. “Uh, hello! Can you help us?”

They glared at me with a sort of intensity I had yet to see from anyone else here. “Oryanna take me, why are  _you_ here,  _miss_ Gracile.”

I opened my mouth, but Ren beat me to it.

“Can you please not do this today, Lucien.” He pointed to his bloody mess of an arm. “I don’t need your whining at the moment.”

Lucien took a step back, tugging a lock of their hair. “What did you do now?”

“Oh, you know, sometimes mistakes happen in the dueling arena.” Ren supplied, but Lucien frowned.

“I highly doubt that the healers at the arena would have left a wound in such condition.”

Ren smiled at that, “That’s what I said! But they just woul–”

“I’m not a fool, Renault.” Lucien growled in a voice that assured me of his gender. He looked back over at me. “Speaking of, you should have been wiser to not tag along with this fool’s errand if it involved coming here.”

“I–” I turned, looking a Renault.

“Lucien, look at me. Think I could have made it here without help?”

Lucien shook his head though. “Your legs seem just fine. If you were truly in such pain you’d be crying for me to heal you right now.”

“So you can help him.” I said.

“Yes, miss Gracile. As much as it pains me to admit, I do not wish to be the one responsible for killing Renault theRose Dancer.” He reached into his robes, pulling out a small pouch and kneeling. He leaned close to Ren, staring him angrily in the eyes. “You know what to do here.”

Renault groaned as he removed what was left of his shirt and laid flat on the ground. Lucien turned to me.

“He’s your problem, remove those bandages.” I nodded and got to work undoing my shitty bandaging job from earlier. They were already soaked through with blood. Not the greatest thing to touch. Once I finished that, I slid backwards and looked over at Lucien.

“Good good.” He pulled a small handful of a white substance that looked like salt out of his pouch, then began to spread it across the wound. When I heard Ren’s howls of pain, I had a feeling that it was actually salt. Lucien, of course, had a small smirk on his face.

With the salt spread, Lucien raised his hand, hovering it right over the center of the wound. Then, he uttered a single word.

“[Ignite.]”

At once, I saw a wisp of smoke rise from the wound. I could swear I could hear a sizzling as more and more smoke began to rise. Looking at Ren’s face, I could tell he was trying to contain his screams as best he could.

A minute later, the smoke began to dissipate, only the faintest wisp stilling rising, and I could see that it was healed completely. Lucien rolled back onto his feet and hopped up, his face as cold as before.

“I assume you will repay me for this kind deed.” When Ren didn’t respond or even seem to register the comment, he turned to me. “As will you for not informing the Council that a apostate like you entered the Academy grounds.”  
Apostate! The pieces were coming together in my head. Of course Cade would be an apostate after their acts of defiance. I should have realized that before. How irritating.

“Or perhaps I should tell them? If you won’t even acknowledge me, that is.”

“W-wait!” I called back out to him.

“Yes?”

“I-I…What do you want?”

Lucien was tugging at his hair again. “For you to stop disappointing your mother, for one.”

I felt my fist clenching involuntarily. Who was this guy?

“You seem to be working off a faulty premise if you think I’m disappointing her, Lucien.”

Lucien smirked, but I could see in his eyes he didn’t expect this response. “And what exactly have you done that would instill any sort of confidence in her?”

I looked back at Ren, who was doing his best expression of being dead at the moment. Not that it really fooled anyone. I shouldn’t do what I’m about to do in front of him, but the competitive flippant side of me was coming out. I had to show this crossdressing priest what was up, even if I’d have to deal with the fallout with Ren.

I turned back to Lucien, giving the most predatory smile I could.

“I’m going to start training to be an acolyte.”

From all around me, I could hear three shocked voices.


	15. Chapter 12

“Would you care to repeat that, miss Gracile?”

  
Lucien took a step forward, forcing me to take a step away from him and closer to Ren and that other person who came out here. That could wait for later.

“I said I’m–”

“THAT’S enough, Cade, dear.” Ren interrupted, stepping in front of me. “Poor Lucien there looks like she’s gonna paint her robes yellow.” Wait, her? But…

It didn’t Lucien long to pounce Ren, the force of her(?) momentum bringing them both tumbling back to the ground. I took the opportunity to start walking in the direction of the entrance.

“Cade, wait!” The unfamiliar person called back to me. When I turned back, he had already somehow managed to drag Lucien off of Ren and had her pinned by the nape of her robe.

On second look, it was unsurprising. Unlike Ren’s roguish, athletic looks and Lucien’s willow-y androgynous body, this person was rather stocky. The tightness in the chest of the academy’s robes left his chest more or less exposed. I couldn’t say it was a good look, but I had to admit he was certainly buff.

I nodded at the man, shooting a look at Ren to help me out.

“Anton, I can explain.” Ren said as he scrambled back to his feet once again, seemingly both pleased and frightened by this course of events.

“Yes,” Lucien coughed, “If you will release me I’m sure we can resolve–” she had to pause to try and regather her breath, “–with-without violence.”

Anton slowly turned her head from one of those two to the other, then gently set Lucien down.

“Just what are you and Cade doing here?”

Ren’s mood seemed to immediately shift. “Well, my friend. I needed some healing done, so Cade helped me get here to find you.”

“–And I healed his wounds shortly before you arrived.”

“Then she tried to–”

Anton cleared his throat, silencing them. “I shouldn’t have asked, you two are the same as ever.” He looked over to me. “What I’d really like to know is, what was that about becoming an acolyte?”

“Yes,” Lucien turned back to me, a little pale but still smug, “Yes, where were we miss Gracile?”

Ren tried to jump in. “Ah, but that was merely a–”

“Now now, Renault, let the lady speak for herself.” Lucien cut him off again. I should have ran off when I had the chance. I had no choice but to say something here, and I didn’t feel like lying or playing along with Ren’s transparent ploy. I wish I could tell how the other two would react. In any case, Ren would probably question me about it later anyways. I took a deep breath.

“Yes, I’ve had a change of heart as of late. I think I want to become a priestess.”

Ren and Lucien tried to speak, but Anton’s voice carried itself over them.

“For real, Cade?”

“Yeah, I’m not joking here.”

In contrast to the scowls the other two were wearing, Anton had a hesitant smile on his face.

Lucien spat out his response next, “You, a priestess! After how you treated us before, that’s a joke!”

“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, Lucien.” I replied.

“Doubtful,” was her only response before turning towards the door, “I have no interest in continuing this line of discussion as of now. Anton, you can show these two out.”

As the door clanged behind her, Ren scurried over to me. “Yes, Anton my friend, I’d love to stay and chat but we need to be out of here.”

Anton nodded, “I get it. Cade, I look forward to seeing you again soon.”  
I gave him a final smile, “As do I.”

Once we were off the academy grounds, Ren grabbed my wrist.

“We’re going back to the monastery.”

I had to dig my boots into the ground to keep him from dragging me behind him.

“No. I’ve already been out for way too long. Mom is already sure to be suspicious.”

“B-but–”

I put all of my force into pulling my wrist out from him. “No buts. If you want to talk to me so bad, come by tonight. Preferably not bloody like last time.”

“…Fine.” He didn’t sound happy about it.

* * *

It was nearing dusk when I finally made it back to my room. On my desk was a small pouch full of salt, and one of Cade’s daggers. It was time to see if this worked.

First, to make a wound. I chose my left palm for simplicity’s sake. One clean yet painful cut, and I could immediately see the red of blood oozing out.  
Next, with my non-wounded hand, I grabbed some of the salt and spread it through the wound. I had to admit, if this hurt that bad I couldn’t even imagine how much Ren’s did. He has impressive tolerance.  
Then, finally, I put my other hand over the wound.

“[Ignite].”

Immediately, I could feel my wound heating up. As it did so, smoke began to rise and inside I could feel things moving inside it, things reconnecting as they did so. I had to admit that part of the sensation was not unpleasant, but the burn did more than enough to dampen that. It took all I had—and I’m sure the integrity of my lips—from screaming out.  
Not even a few seconds later, it was done. Outside a faint line on the skin, there was no indication I’d ever been wounded there.

I fell back in the chair.

Then I laughed.

Of course magic was that easy. Of course it was…Immediately, questions started forming in my mind. Besides the material component and the dubious legality, what stops someone from being a mage? English can’t be that difficult to learn when compared to a lot of other possible magical systems. I certainly don’t have any training and I just mimicked a spell I saw once.

Even then, why was [Ignite] the phrase for healing? If I thought about it non-linearly I think I could see a vague connection between Salt/Fire/Wound, but it seemed rather tenuous a connection. Is [Ignite] only used for healing? I guess I could try something else, but that might not be wise at the moment. Don’t want to accidentally burn this place down. Will have to investigate tomorrow, however.

Which brings me to the next question, if magic is supressed, why did Cade know enough to make that barrier to the door? From my eyes, that seems like a fairly high-powered spell so it would reckon that someone as young and magically untalented as her would not know it. At least with the other questions once I learned some theory I’d understand. With these history questions, well, I don’t know. Erina seems unlikely to know what’s going on, Ren’s almost assuredly going to be pissed at me now, and until I now I didn’t know anyone else…Then again, those two I met today apparently knew Cade well enough.

Giving up on the chair, I crawled over to the bed. What an exhausting day, and I still had Ren to deal with. Hopefully all this effort starts paying dividends soon, because goddamn the process of becoming another person is stressful.


	16. Chapter 13

For once, I was ready for him when the window opened. I stretched my back, sitting a little sterner in the chair. As he slid through the window, he made eye contact with me.

 

“Mycah.”

“Good evening, Ren.”

He took a few steps forward, slightly annoyed at my positioning. Then, he sat on the edge of the bed. Neither of us spoke. As I had expected, he seemed displeased due to the events of today. I ended up speaking first—an odd reversal from the norm.

“Give me your hand.”

“What for?” He said, wringing his hands in his lap.

I reached over onto my desk and grabbed the dagger from earlier. “I’m going to cut it.”

Surprisingly, he gave out an exasperated laugh and held his arm out. “Ha! You’ve already stabbed me in the back, so what’s more.”

I grabbed it, cut it, salted it, then healed it as I’d done earlier. Then, I looked up at him.

He pulled his hand back. “You learned that in one day?”

“I did. It didn’t seem difficult.” I said, setting the dagger back down.

He laughed again. “Of course it didn’t. It took me close to a month to learn one spell, and here you are doing it immediately! Is this why you’re oh-so-suddenly joining the church again?”

“One of a couple reasons, yes.”

He threw his hands into the air. “Sure, sure. I’m sure you’re doing it for Cade’s sake as well! She’ll  _loooove_ coming back to see she’s back in that place!” After that outburst, I waited a moment for him to regain his composure a little. Then, it was time for the bigger matter of the night.

“…Who said I was doing this for Cade’s sake?”

“Ha! So you just hate her?” He turned serious immediately, “This is all just some act of spite?”

“I think you missed what I’m trying to say, Ren.”

He hopped up off the bed finally, pacing around the room. “Then please tell me, Mycah.” He pivoted around to face me, leaning ever so slightly forward staring straight into my eyes. It was time to answer him for real.

“I am not going back.”

The only reaction he showed to that was his eyes squinting a little more. His next words came slowly and deliberate.

“Why. Would. You. Hurt. Us. Like. That?”

I shook my head, rubbing my forehead as I did so. “I’m not trying to hurt you two. I just…” I slumped back in my chair, letting my guard down just a little. “I’ve felt more at peace here than in the rest of my life. Thinking back to who I was before, I was hollow.”

If there was one thing I could count on, it was Ren to be able to read the mood. He relaxed just a little as well, taking a step away. The room felt a little more comfortable immediately.

“Even so, Mycah. I don’t know who you were before coming here, but you would leave Cade stranded in a place she doesn’t know in a person you just admitted was ‘hollow’? You would break both our hearts for your own happiness?”

“See, that’s the thing! If my idea of Cade is right, she’s doing a better job being me than I did! Just like how I’ve done a better job being  _her_.”

“What makes you think  _that?_ ”

“Well, it’s just like I said, I was hollow. I went through life merely existing, slightly dissatisfied with myself and the things around me. There were no major problems in my life, no pressing goals or anything to motivate me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Cade, it’s that she’s the opposite. She acted out a lot here because she knew what she wanted, and it wasn’t what her family wanted her to be. Without those barriers…I think she might be enjoying her freedom.”

Ren took another couple steps back, leaning on the wall. “It’s true at least that Cade really needed to get away from her family. Still, I can’t approve of this.”

I brushed off my skirt and finally stood up to face him. “I didn’t expect you to, Ren.”


	17. Interlude 3: Unity of Purpose

I reached into my pocket, pulling out the two bills in my wallet. I pushed them into the hands of the impromptu bookie, some kid I’d never seen before. Probably a freshman.

“I’m next.” I stretched my shoulders out and walked towards the mats, waiting for the two guys on them to finish. I recognized one of them from, although I didn’t remember his name or where I knew him from at the moment. From the lock he had his opponent in, this would be done with soon.

A couple days ago, I had made the ‘mistake’ of crossing some jackass on the football team and he tried to jump me after the school day had ended. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong duelist to bully around. He was lucky I didn’t have a sword or I’d have fucked him up even more.

The day after, I received a text from a number I had never seen before telling me to come here today. You could only imagine my excitement when I showed up and found out there was an illicit fight club in my school. Before my premature withdrawal from the dueling circuit back in Rubyll, I was the second highest ranked woman there. Not that it mattered, considering the fifty-odd names ahead of me. It had made me resent my body, I was absolutely certain I could keep up with Ren if I had a man’s strength.

When I came here, nothing disappointed me more than the relative lack of confrontation in this culture. Something compounded by the original Michael’s nature. Seriously, who chooses  _swimming_ as a sport? There’s no camaraderie, no visceral competition in doing laps around a pool, just tedium. I left that team less than a month into my being brought here. Something told me Michael would appreciate that as well.

This, maybe not as much. Not that I cared, if he hadn’t figured out how to swap back in this long, I doubt it would happen. Besides Ren, I didn’t really have much to live for in Rubyll. Admittedly, Ren might be a big reason to stay, but well…let’s say I’ve found other ways to fulfill that urge. Hopefully, Ren was off sleeping with Niam or Lucien or one of the dozen other guys he used to tell me about and was over it too.

With a tap of the mat, the familiar stranger won the match. He walked over to the bookie to grab his cut, then turned to face me.

“Who’re you?”

“Mike. I used to be on the swim team.”

His squint told me that didn’t mean much to him. “You must be new here.”

“Obviously.” then I smirked. “Doesn’t mean I’m not going to beat you.”

He tried to let out a deep, booming laugh but his voice cracked part of the way through. It made it hard for me to take the rest of his boast seriously. “Bold. Do you even know who I am, newbie?”

“Doesn’t matter.” I’ve dealt with his type before. It’s better to let them underestimate you, makes them careless. Plus, it makes the victory feel so much sweeter.

I was shocked when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m Nick. Vice-captain of our wrestling team.” he said sternly. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to dissuade me from fighting or put me in my place.

I flipped around, brushing him off. “Alright.” With a frown on his face, he went to take his place on the mats. I followed.

“Any rules I should know about?” I called over to him.

“Yeah, don’t go for the crotch and try not to leave any woulds that would draw attention.”

I nodded, then readied myself to fight. My style was used to a sword, but against someone relatively untrained like this I should be able to use my reflexes to get in enough hits.

“Ready?” I heard the bookie yell out. “…Fight!”

…Then I lost. If only barely. I underestimated this wrestling style. Without the range of a weapon, I had to get in way too close to fight and that let him grapple me with ease. Looking at his beat-up face though, it was obvious I was close.

The man on me was breathing hard, a mix of sweat and blood dripping down his face onto my chest. His legs still had me pinned under him, helpless until he fell over.

Somehow I didn’t feel bad, though. I lost $15, but this was far more interesting than cash.

I think I found the one thing I was missing here.


	18. Paralogue 1: The Custodian of Hartswell

“Have a nice day,” I said to the poor girl leaving my office, shutting the door behind her. Looking over at the paper on my desk, I let out a sigh. Only three more students on the list for today. I pressed the button on the intercom and called the next student’s name.

 

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I got up and took a few steps towards the door, when all of a sudden time seemed to…stop.

“Something wrong, Shion?” I asked the emptiness around me. Slowly, a familiar black void slithered out from under my desk, coming to a rest in a puddle in front of me, all the countless eyes staring at me.

“Something is amiss with the being outside this door.” The void spoke back to me.

I stiffened up. “Another witch?”

The void’s imperceptible expression shifted. “T’is unlike the other witches. More akin to the nascent goddess, yet even there it’s faint.”

I instinctively clicked my heel to the ground, disconcerted. “I don’t know if I can handle another–”

The sound of someone knocking on my door broke my train of thought. THAT of all things shouldn’t be happening right now. I glanced up at the wall clock to double-check, confirming that the seconds hand still was not moving.

“Hello! Anyone in there!”

“Shion…” I whispered, quickly ducking behind my desk.

“The being has broken through the consciousness barrier.” It said back, the closest thing to emotion I’d ever heard in it’s voice.

“I know…Is there any precedent for such a thing?”

Before Shion could respond, the person outside yelled again. “Helloo. If no one’s there, I’m leaving.”

“–Not a single being from this world should be able to peer into another’s subconscious.” Shion continued.

“Gooooodbyyyee!” The voice outside yelled.

“The being is leaving.” Shion said, “You should identify them. We will protect you if necessary.”

I waited a few more seconds, gathered my wits, and opened the door. The person was already at the end of the hallway, about to turn. They were just a student, dark-haired and male.

Exhaling, I walked back to my desk and looked at the list of students again. The student I had called was Michael Clements.

I looked down at Shion, still puddled around my feet. “How do you want to approach this?”


	19. Paralogue 2: The Mage in Question

I took another sip of my wine. It was a little dryer than I would have liked, but that was just a consequence of the desert air. It was much better than the over-sweetened fruit juice they called wine closer to the capital.

 

That was perhaps the only perk on this leg of my journey I mused, looking to the gnarled face of the man across the table from him. I preferred my company more refined than present company, but alas…

“Heard yer headin’ towards Pharenth.” The man started the negotiations with.

I nodded. “Yes sir, my work takes me to Rubyll, to be specific.” Nevermind that my ‘work’ was more ‘pleasure’ for now.

The man unbuckled a latch from his belt, pulling out a large parchment scroll and unfurling across the majority of the table and the edge of my wineglass. Disgusting. Using my pinky finger, I gently folded the tip of his map while he examined it.

“We’d need ta take the south route ta avoid the church patrols, but we could do it.”

I frowned. The southern route would delay my return an additional week, at minimum. I was displeased I had been away from the awaiting arms of my lover for as long as I had, plus there was the matter of the hour at hand as well.

The man pulled out another scroll out of his satchel, unfurling it in front of me. “Given yer skills and the long route, I’m willin’ ta give ya fifteen drachmar a day and safe passage to Rubyll.”

My eyes narrowed. “Preposterous. The last time I dealt with Rusty Scales, my fee was twenty drachmar and a portion of the spoils.”

He grinned at me, “Ay, lad, but times ‘ave changed. Ol’ Santo ain’t in charge anymore, I am. Plus, we’d be takin’ the south route just fer ya. It wouldn’t be right ta my men when yer the cargo.”

I downed the rest of my wine. Was I really considering this? Besides the Rusty Scales, there were still Yarn’s Brigade and that one group of brigands, but the Brigade would pay similarly and brigands were, well, the uncouth unrefined unattractive low-lives that I ever so abhorred.

I slammed my glass on the table, purposefully letting a drop slosh off onto his precious map. “Bah! Eighteen and ya got a deal.”

“Heheh, don’t play those games wit me, lad. Fifteen or nothin’.” The captain grinned. At that, I realized nothing would change his mind most likely.

But before I could answer him, an explosion range out near the entrance of the monastery, the doorman going flying across the hall as he did so. Immediately, Thrax came running out, a hand beneath his robes undoubtedly reaching for his magical instruments.

I stood up as a figure clanked his way past the doorman and straight towards me. The man had long blonde hair flowing behind him and a youthful face. His battered white armor bore six inscribed jewel sockets on it, and in the middle was a crest I had only ever had described to me before. He methodically went over and grabbed a chair, then strode straight towards my table.

Thrax ran forward, tossing a mass of dust into the air and igniting it with his dragonbreath, but I knew that would do nothing—that armor was inscribed with anti-elemental resistance.

To my surprise though, the paladin simply stopped in front of Thrax, getting on one knee.

“I apologize for my entrance, Masclean priest, but your doorman would not let me in.” Then he pointed at me. “I have business with that man.”

Thrax seemed unsure of what to do in this situation, but I took one look at the Scales captain, then back at the paladin. Then, I turned back to the Scales captain one more time.

“I think our negotiations are over, captain.” I told him.

“Yeah, yeah, didn’t want yer type anyway.” He said, rolling up his map and stepping away.

Then I sat down, beckoning the paladin over.

He gave me an easy-going grin at that, sitting across from me. It was then I saw the freckles on his young, young face. In spite of everything Renault said, he was easily my type.

I smiled back.

“Leon Whitesbane, it seems we have a lot of discuss.”


	20. Arc 3: Fiery Confluence

Ren slunk away without saying anything after that. I understood it to an extent, but I wouldn’t budge for anyone anymore. I was my own woman.

The next day, I had one mission. To deal with that goddamn door.

 

Admittedly, my idea was kind of mad, but now that I knew one spell, I wanted to know how big the area it could expand to was.

So, naturally, I gathered all the salt I could. I also had a pale of water nearby, just in case. I scattered the salt all over the door, then said it.

“[Ignite].”

Nothing happened. At first. Soon, I saw a small string of smoke starting to rise up, then the red of a flame. I blew on it and let the flame begin to grow.

I laughed. It worked! It fucking worked! I never was going to figure out the spell that Cade used on this door now that I had completely ruined my already-tenuous relationship with Ren, so this was the next idea. With another crack, the flames started to creep up the door, threatening to engulf the wood.

From the other side, I heard a voice. “Hey Cadence, what—WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?” It was mom.

I yelled back, “It’s fine, I have some water right here! Just gotta finish burning this down!” But, then, with another crack, the flames jumped from the door to the walls.

Oh shit.

I scrambled to grab my pale of water, tossing it at the wall. It did little to douse the flames.

* * *

Mom was glaring at me as we watched the men spray down the last vestiges of the fire from outside the house. In that regard, having water magic was handy. I noted I would need to learn how to actually harness the water crystals next time.

“What were you thinking?” She said, he hands on her hips.

I shrugged, doing my best to not let her get to me. “I wanted to get rid of the door, so I just cast a fire spell…”

“A SPELL!” She yelled. “But you’re not a priestess yet! And besides that, how did you possibly learn a spell like that already?”

“It’s really simple.” I said. “All you have to do is have some salt and say ‘[Ignite]’.”

She gasped. “Don’t say that again!! I don’t want someone hearing and calling an inquisition on my daughter!”

Right. Only members of the church are supposed to use magic. As I glanced up at the fire again, I mused that this must have been one of the reasons why. Still, my mind was wondering what else I could do…Why did [Ignite] cause a fire like that, but healed with wounds? And why didn’t people just do this all the time? Learning magic was as easy as having a catalyst and saying the words. It was weird they didn’t.

“I mean, I do plan on starting acolyte training again soon.” I ended up replying to her.

She sighed. “So you were serious about that.”

“I was. Why do you sound dejected?” I asked.

“I was looking around for sponsors the other day, and no one’s going to take you. You’re an apostate, remember.”

I frowned. “Can’t I just apologize? Surely they’ll take me back?”

She shook her head. “Don’t you understand? You defaced a statue of the goddess! It’s only because you’re a child and your dad is one of the best inscriptors they have that they didn’t call an inquisition on you then. And now this!” She motioned to the house.

“Well, we better say it wasn’t magic then.” I said flatly. I would have to deal with entrance exams later. For now, I decided it would be best to change the subject a little. “In any case, my door’s been taken care of, so am I free to leave the house on my own now?”

“Seriously? You caught our house on fire and that’s what you’re worried about?” Mom laughed.

I puffed my bottom lip out. “What? I’ve been cooped up with no friends for soooo long now!”

It took a moment for her to answer, then she said, “…You can go see Erina from time to time, but if I hear you’re with Renault or anywhere near the dueling arena again..!”

It was my turn to laugh, “Ha, I don’t think I’ll be seeing Ren anymore, mom.” She gave me a quizzical expression, so I explained, “We had a bit of a falling out recently.”

“Did this happen during one of your….midnight dalliance?” She said, making me gasp. “What? Did you think you were hiding it? We just couldn’t do anything due to the seal on your door.”

“Mmm,” was all I could say as I pondered that apparently the seal did something, possibly it locked the door? Who knows.

“So that’s a yes?”

I gasped, realizing she asked me a question. “S-something like that. Needless to say, he wants nothing to do with me right now.”

She leaned a little closer to me, putting her arm around my shoulder. “Well, I know I didn’t like him, but just know you’ll get through it. There are more boys out there for you to fall in love with.” I barely resisted giggling. Oh, I’m sure there were more boys out there, but that wasn’t what was on my mind when it came to love.

And sure enough, as if to echo my statement, Erina Cothdell and her mother were walking straight towards us.


	21. Chapter 15

“What are you two doing here?” My mom asked Erina’s mom.

“Well, we heard someone’s house was on fire and came to see if they needed help.” Erina’s mom said.

 

We glanced over at the smoldering roof. It looked like the worst was over, at least.

“I think we’re fine.” Mom said.

As if to punctuate that point, one of the men fighting the fire came over to our little group.

“We’ve put out the fire, lady Gracile. I don’t recommend anyone go onto the second floor for a few days though.” He said.

My mom nodded, “Alright. We’ll have to make do.” I could tell she didn’t like that. It made sense—there were only five rooms on the first floor, the kitchen, the dining room, the parlor, the bathroom, and my parents’ room. One of those was already taken, and three of them were bad for sleeping, which would leave me and Woodrow cramped in the parlor.

Erina’s mom put her hand on my mom’s shoulder. “Is that alright? From what I remember, your house isn’t that big?”

My mom had her hands on her temples again. “I don’t know, but what choice do we have? The kids will just have to suck it up and be nice to each other for a few nights.”

Just then, Erina clapped, dragging our attention to her. “I have an idea!” Then she looked up at her mom, “Can Cadence stay with us for a few days?!” Then she looked to my mom, “If that’s okay with Mrs. Gracile, that is!”

“U-uh, is that okay with you, Miriam?” My mom said, passing the buck to Erina’s.

Mrs. Cothdell traced a line on her arm, deep in thought. “I suppose that’s fine.” She looked to her daughter, who was currently bouncing up and down, delighted. “Besides, I think Erina would be very dejected if I said no.”

My mom laughed, “Bah, I suppose you’re right!” She looked over to me. “If I hear you made a fool of yourself in any way though..!”

I nodded, “Yeah, I know, I’m doomed. I promise I’ll play nice and not start any fires again.”

Mrs. Cothdell got cold at that. “Y-you started the fire?” Oops. I probably should have been a bit more wise in front of my savior.

I sighed, “It was an accident, but yes! I was playing with things I shouldn’t have.”

“Y-yeah, heh, that sounds like Cadence…” Erina giggled to herself. Her mom looked at her with a weird look.

“I suppose so…Please don’t burn down our house, Cadence.” Mrs. Cothdell said.

I raised my hand to my heart, giving a slight bow—was Renault starting to rub off on me?–and said, “I promise, Mrs. Cothdell.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

We were able to enter the house a little later, which gave me time to peek upstairs and examine the door. Sure enough, it was turned to ash. I mentally congratulated myself. I promised to myself I wouldn’t mess with magic when I was at Erina’s house, but once I was back I’d have to experiment more…maybe not with fire spells though.

Glancing from side to side to make sure no one saw me, I ran upstairs and peeked into my room next. Sitting right on my desk where I had left it was the [Zero Collector] scroll. I was lucky, the rest of my room was a wreck, my poor bed and wardrobe were more or less gone I could tell. I giggled though, of course Cade’s swords were all a-okay.

I grabbed the [Zero Collector] scroll. Even if I wasn’t going to practice magic, I just had a feeling I should hang onto it. Then I went back downstairs. My mom was in the parlor with the Cothdell ladies. She was holding a small bag, which she handed to me.

“Here’s some of my hand-me-down pajamas. We’ll have to take you to the market in the next day or two so you can have some more clothes though.” She told me.

“Alright. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.” I told her, then after a few more minutes of small talk, the Cothdells and I departed to their house.

Erina grabbed my hand as we left, cradling it in her own. “This is gonna be so fun, Cadence! It’s been so long since I’ve had a friend over!”

* * *

The faint smell of leather and tar was all over the Cothdell’s residence. It was about the same size as our house, but whereas we had a parlor and dining room, the Cothdell’s had their workshop in the back. It was also clear from the décor that they were much more…working class…than my family. When I went to the restroom though, I was surprised to find their bath was just as big as ours though.

Erina hugged me from behind, “Wanna take a bath together later?” I blinked and pushed her off me, turning around as I did. Was she really asking me that?

“U-uh, you know I used to be a boy, right?” I asked her.

She tilted her head in confusion, “Y-yes? What does that have to do with anything, Cadence?”

“I, uh, how do I say this?” I paused, but she was looking expectantly at me, biting her oh-so-beautiful lip.

“I like women, Erina.” I finally said.

She scratched her head, “Oh? I do too.”

“Nononono, not like that,” I said. “I’m sexually attracted to women, Erina.”

She nodded, “Yeah. Me too.” Then, she stepped forward to me again, snaking her finger up the side of my arm until she rested it on my cheek, “I’ve always thought Cadence was pretty…” She said, trailing off and meeting my eyes as she did so.

I was shivering. W-was this really happening? I-I-I’d always been afraid of girls to a degree, especially being close to them. I had needed Gordon’s help to even really talk to Cat before, but now I had a woman literally coming on to me?? Sure, I felt better being Cadence, but this was a lot to take in at the moment…I opened my mouth to say something.

But the moment was gone. She pulled her hand away. “A-are you not interested in me, Cadence?” She asked.

I reached out and grabbed her hand, “No! I-I am, Erina! I find you very pretty.” Wait, was I really saying this? My brain was begging me to stop, let her go, don’t make a fool of myself. But I continued. “I like you a lot, Erina, you’re bright and forward in all the ways I’m not.” I pulled her closer, her body leaning away from mine like we were a pair of dancers.

She looked up at me with her beautiful green eyes, scarlet flush across her face. I was certain mine was too. Every braincell in me was telling me to stop this, get away from her, let things progress more naturally, but I leaned down towards her.

And she leaned up to me, her arms reaching up around mine.

And our lips met. I knew at that moment our relationship would never be the same again.


	22. Chapter 16

“[Ignite].” I said for the dozenth time in the past hour. I was sitting on Erina’s bed, a little bit of salt next to me left. I had already ran what I could assume was a mile and paced around Erina’s house another dozen times. I had eventually just settled on slicing gouges in my skin then repeatedly healing them to pass the time. It helped me practice my diction, I guess.

 

Erina still had her apprenticeship duties to do for the day, so shortly after our…encounter…in the bathroom, she had to go back to doing her job. Her family was too nice and didn’t dare give a guest any chores either, so I had literally nothing to do.

I glanced over at Erina’s closet. I guess I could go riffle through her clothing if I wanted, but I respected other people’s privacy. At least, now that I was Cadence.

“[Ignite].” I said again, idly watching as the skin began to stitch itself together. I had cut myself so many times that the stinging didn’t even register to me anymore. Dammit, when would her workday be done? The was already so low in the sky.

Patience wasn’t one of my strong suits. Sure, when I was at our house, my days were similar, but here there was an unspoken expectation between Erina and I. At the very least, I wanted to see her body beneath the greasy apron and dress she worked in…

I shuddered. God, I sounded like such a teenage boy. It was one thing to do things and admire my body, but it was another thing to objectify your closest—and only—friend. I didn’t like that, I should be more chaste.

“[Ignite].” That felt better. I thought back to tonight. We were going to share a bath, probably have some nice romantic kisses, gossip about nothings, then cuddle as we fell asleep. That’s how girls did it, right?

Truth be told, that scared me. What I was thinking wasn’t that. I struggle to admit it, but I wanted to run my hands all over Erina’s body, and her mine. I wanted us to whisper sweet nothing and expose our most intimate selves to each other. The grossest parts of me, parts I shouldn’t have if I was going to be Cadence, were looking forward to the fact we might lose our virginity tonight. Like any high school boy, I had always looked forward to the day I might do that…albeit I didn’t expect it to be in this manner in this body.

“[Ignite].” Stop it. Just focus on the rhythm of cutting and healing. Nothing has even happened yet for you to feel gross about. I went to slash my wrist again.

“Cadence..?” Someone said. I looked up, it was Erina.

Immediately I covered my wrist, dropping the knife. “T-this isn’t what it looks like!” I stuttered out. I grabbed a pinch of salt, tossing it over the wound. “[Ignite].”

I put my healed arm out to her, “See?”

She stopped in her steps, leaning in to look at my wrist. “You learned to do magic already?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I picked it up from one of Ren’s friends when we went to the church.”

She slapped her cheeks, “Wow! It takes people months to learn any spells, and you’ve already learned one? That’s soooo cool!”

I grinned. “Isn’t it? I’ll let you in on a secret too—I started the housefire with magic too.”

Her eyes glimmered at that. Mentally, I calmed down. Bragging about magic was much easier than what was going on before.

* * *

Dinner was a little awkward, I think eating with someone else’s family always is, but manageable. I got to meet Erina’s dad and grandmother—apparently they both worked in the workshop during the day while Erina’s mom managed sales. They were kind enough to me though, and Erina’s mom made a killer carbonara. I couldn’t complain at least.

Then it was time for our bath. We actually had to wait a little bit, all the adults got first priority on the bath water—something that made me wonder just how hygenic all this was—but then it was us. Erina justified us sharing a bath by saying the water would be colder if we waited any longer, which was probably true since unlike us, the Cothdell family didn’t have access to heating crystals and as such had to manually heat their bath by hand.

Erina pounched on me as soon as we were in the bathroom, pulling my skirt down to my ankles, leaving me in just my bloomers.

“Ack! W-what was that for?” I managed to choke out. She was looking up at me with her mischevious eyes, as if daring me to retailiate. I knew I couldn’t though.

Her expression shifted, and she took a step back. “Sorry, was just trying to get you to calm down…” she said.

“I’m calm…” I said as I pulled off my tunic, noting that she was finally disrobing herself as well. Once we were undressed, she ran up behind me and rubbed my shoulders.

“You’re very tense, Cadence…” She replied, leaning up and giving me a kiss on the nape of my neck. It took all the composure I had not to melt right there.

I shivered. “W-w-w-w-what are you doing??” I said, panicked.

She shrugged, “I’ve been holding in the desire to kiss you all day.”

I looked down at her. “Yeah, but why right there? It’s sensitive…”

Sbe was beaming up at me, both her hands on her waist, giving me a perfect view of her body. “Good! I know where your weak spot is now!” She hopped at me, trying to latch on around my neck and give me more kisses, but I pushed her off.

“I-I think we need to get in the bath.”

“Fiiiine.” She said as she crossed her arms, only managing to accentuate her already-plentiful bust.

The bathtub was lukewarm, but it was still fine for the both of us. We were at opposite ends, facing each other down. To her part, Erina had a giddy smile on her face but was otherwise keeping her cool. I, on the other hand, was admittedly a big ball of anxiety, exchanging looks between at Erina and the far corners of the bathroom at the drop of a hat.

Something was wrong with me. Only I could have a girl like this literally naked in front of her and still manage to make it awkward. I knew I wasn’t making things any better, but part of me was still saying this was wrong somehow. I had to beat back my emotions in my mind to even focus a little on the amazing girl in front of me.

The sound of the water swirling and a hand on my thigh snapped be back. “Cadence, are you okay?”

I looked down at her hand. God, why did she have to put it on my thigh, didn’t she know that made my mind go to rotten places? At least it brought me back to reality.

“Yeah, sorry…I’m just a little freaked out, y’know.”

She tilted her head in her trademark pose. “Why’s that?”

I bit my fingernail, snapping off part of it. “I don’t know, I feel like I’m doing something wrong right now. I shouldn’t be having the thoughts that I am. This is just a bath, not anything baudy.”

“Thoughts..? What kind of thoughts..?” She asked, sliding her hand further up my thigh and leaning closer in to me.

I had to look away else get lost in her stupid beautiful eyes. “T-things the stupid boy part of me are thinking of…”

Instantly, she peeled herself off of me. “Cadence has a boy part of her?”

“Well, yeah. I was a boy before coming here.”

“But you’re not a boy now…” She looked down into the murky water, “I mean, I can see your–”

“–That’s not what I mean!” I said, covering my face with my hands. Not having to look at anything calmed me down a lot and let me gather my thought.“I know I’m a girl now, but I still have all these stupid boy thoughts inside my head and it makes me feel gross like I’m exploiting you and girls don’t have any of these thoughts or impulses I’m having and-and-and…”

Erina leaned forward and got on her knees before putting her arms around me. “Cadence, Cadence, it’s okay…” I returned her hug, leaning into her shoulder and beginning to cry.

“I’m sorry, Erina, I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” I managed to eek out.

She just rubbed my back, “It’s okay, Cadence. You’re just overthinking things. I-I don’t really understand it, but Cadence is plenty girl enough for me, even if she was a boy before.”

“Y-yeah?” I whispered.

“Yeah.” She said. That made me feel a little better. I leaned back and looked at her.

That’s when we shared our second kiss. It was long and had a lot more tongue than our first. I had always seen things about people ‘practicing’ kissing and how it was difficult to french kiss, but it came pretty easily to me at least.

Eventually though, we had to break it off. Then she grinned at me. “Sooo…what kind of thoughts were you having?”

I exhaled through my nose, a fire rising in my chest. It gave me enough confidence to power through my embarrassment and self-hatred to answer her.

“I’ll tell you when we’re in bed.”

Her grin only grew in size.


	23. Chapter 17

I flopped my arm out in my sleep, slapping against an unfamiliar weight. Then I heard an ‘urk’. I shot my eyes open, looking at my arm.

I had inadvertently smacked the naked form of my lover. Oops. At least she didn’t wake up. I blushed when I thought back to the things we did last night, I knew I was going to replay it in my head for quite a while from now on…

 

I looked up at the window in her room, sun was shining through the curtains. I was a little shocked, I would have assumed Erina’s family was early-risers given their profession. In any case, I silently hopped over my lover and grabbed my bloomers from off the floor.

“Mmm…” Erina’s voice stirred from behind me. I turned around, and she was propped up on her bed. “Cadence, you got up before me?”

“Yeah.” I pointed at her window. “It’s already morning.”

“Oh!” She said, sliding off the bed and pulling on her own undergarments. “Mom’s gonna kill me!” She quickly pulled a dress out of her closet and shrugged it on, then ran out of the room.

A minute or two later, when I was dressed, I joined her.

“I know how girl talk can be, but you two should have got to bed sooner…” Erina’s mom said to us when I joined them at the dining table. Erina already had her mouth full with toast and jam, but we both shot each other a glance at that. I guess we were calling it ‘girl talk’ now.

“Sorry, m’am.” I said.

She waved her hand at me, “Oh, you’re fine, Cadence. It’s really Erina who should know better.” Erina glared up at her mom at that. Then, her mom added, “Didn’t your mom want you home? As soon as you’re done eating, you should head on home.”

I grabbed the knife and spread a glob of jam on the toast. “Yeah, good idea. I’ll see you tonight.”

Erina smiled at me, giggling, “Fhor shure.” she replied with her mouth full. That’s when I noticed I had told her that and not her mom. God, I was making this too obvious…

* * *

I immediately noticed a hole in the first floor ceiling when I entered our house. I glanced up and I could see right into my room from down here. That definitely wasn’t caused by the fire.

I found my mom in the parlor, sipping on some tea.

“You’re late.” She said.

“Sorry, Erina and I were up late last night talking.”

She smiled at that. “Well, that’s nice that you’re bonding with her again at least.”

“I wouldn’t trade her for the world.” I said, which got a raised eyebrow from my mother. I pointed at the entranceway. “So, what’s with the hole?”

My mom sighed. “Someone tried to break into our house last night. They just didn’t expect the floor to be that weak after the–” she paused to emphasize the next word, “accident.”

My eyes narrowed. “Ren.” I found myself saying outloud.

“You think?” My mom said, sounding halfway between a question and a statement. At least we were on the same page about that.

“I’ll have to talk to him about it.” I said, dejected. I didn’t expect him to want to talk again this soon. I was a little surprised he’d even try, it felt like he was the type of person to know about a fire at his supposed-girlfriend’s place before anyone else.

A thought came unbidden to my head. Unless he wasn’t here to see me. I batted it back though, what else would Ren want here besides me? Plus, he had treated me quite honorably all things considered so far.

“Anyways,” My mom ended up saying, “Ready for our shopping trip? I can’t have you dressed in my hand-me-downs.”

Some god was pleased with me I mused as we got ready to leave. I had burned down the top floor of our house and somehow came out of it with a new wardrobe and a girlfriend. Maybe I should take up arson as a hobby.

* * *

I was exhausted after maybe an hour of trying on dresses with my mom. Out of all her faults, I didn’t expect to curse her sense of style above all else. She had high standards and I barely had time to try on one outfit before the next one came on.

By the time we had compiled a couple of pieces for me to wear, I was ready to return to Hartswell and live out of my sweatpants again. Then came the tailoring. Mrs. Gracile would not have her daughter looking like anything less than a princess, it seemed.

In the end, it was going to take two days to get the dresses, so I ended the trip with the same amount of clothes I started it with.

I spent what was left of my day idle, not that there was much left. I wasn’t going to mess with magic while I was staying with Erina, and the hours of being a doll had drained my psyche. I’d deal with Ren tomorrow.

The good news was I had an amazing lady waiting for me when I got back to Erina’s.


	24. Interlude 4: Magical Hack

For the first time in however long, my mother was home on a school day. Well, at the school on a school day, but I digress.

 

We were both sitting in a large boardroom in the administrative wing of South Ridge High School. The meeting wasn’t a good one, I thought. I was supposed to meet with the counsellor a week or two ago about my failing grades, but she blew me off apparently. It was kind of a fool’s errand in the first place—there was no way placing someone from another world in upper-level science and math classes was going to work out! It might as well have been as inaccessible to me as magic was in Rubyll.

I had no plan on how to explain that to them though. ‘Oh, I’m not your son, I’m just some girl who fucked up a magic spell and is now trapped in your son’s body’ was not an excuse that tended to work on people.

It was also telling that neither mother or I said a word to each other. Did you believe I still didn’t even know her first name? I’ve been here for two months and nothing. Hell, I can count the number of times I’ve been out of the house with them on my fingers. At least they had a large budget for their son to have take-out.

There was a knock on the door and three people walked in. I recognized the black man as Vice-principal Jackson, and the asian woman next to him was probably that counsellor, Ms. Morishima, but the woman in the gaudy brick-colored ballgown that was more at home in Pharenth’s courts than here I didn’t recognize.

That’s a lie. I recognized pictures of her, some weird folk story about a lady named Eleanora, but I hadn’t found anything mystical about this world yet…

Principal Jackson coughed, “Mrs. Clements, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to come here today.”

My mom stood up and shook his hand. “Your welcome. I assume your the Mr. Jackson who called me earlier?”

He nodded. “Yes,” then he motioned to the asian woman. “And this is Ms. Morishima, the counsellor in charge of Michael’s class.”

Morishima just smiled and said, “Pleasure to meet you.”

I pointed at the mysterious woman as she crossed by me. “Who’s that?” I asked. Her expression shifted.

“Who’s who?” Jackson replied, but I noticed that Morishima and the woman crossed eyes.

I stood up walking towards the woman, “The lady right here!” Then I grabbed her arm and raised it up.

“What are you doing Michael? Sit down.” My mother said.

Then Morishima stared at me, her eyes looking like they wanted to murder me and said, “There’s no one there, Mr. Clements.”

I dropped her hand and looked around the room.

“Are you alright son?” Jackson asked me.

I sighed, knowing something weird was going on, and went back to my seat. “Sorry, I was seeing things.”

Both my mom and the vice-principal didn’t seem to buy it, but they both sat down after.

Jackson looked over to Ms Morishima, and I noticed for the first time she was holding a file. “Anyways, we called you both here today because we’ve been watching Michael’s grades and they’ve fallen dramatically in the last two months.”

My mom nodded, I had already briefed her on the purpose of today’s meeting last night. “I’m aware.”

Morishima continued, “We’re not here to point fingers at anything going on, these things tend to happen, but how has Michael’s home-life been recently?” She stared at me, “Any big changes lately?”

My mom put her finger on her chin, thinking for a moment. “Lets see…Michael quit the swim team a month and a half ago, but besides that, nothing…”

* * *

The meeting continued for another half-hour or so of galking and me telling them that everything was too hard and how I made a mistake being in so many upper-level classes. They said I couldn’t quit some of them until after the winter break and essentially gave me the ‘good luck kid’ speech til then. The whole time the mysterious woman stood still, although the expression in her eyes gave me the impression she was completely bored with life.

But then we reached the end of the meeting, and Ms Morishima looked to my mom. “Mrs. Clements, do you mind if I speak to Michael privately for a few minutes?”

She looked confused, but ended up accepting. “Yes, that’s fine. It won’t take more than ten minutes, right?”

“Oh no no, not even that long. Just, as a professional courtesy, I always try to ask some at-risk students a few things in private. Is that okay with you, Michael?”

“Yeah. Lets go.” I met her gaze, hoping I was giving her my best glare. As she led me out of the boardroom and into her office, I noticed the woman was following us.

“Who is she?” I asked.

Then she unlocked her office and pointed for me to go inside. Once all three of us were, she closed the door behind her and locked it.

The woman let out a breath and her form hunched over. “Who the hell are you?” She asked.

“Who are you and why can no one but us two see you?” I shot back.

She scratched at her chin as if she had a beard. “No one besides other witches should be able to see me when I’m invisible!”

I squeezed my fists, angry, “Witches? There’s fucking magic in this world?”

Ms. Morishima got between us before it could go any further though. “You aren’t a witch?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”

“But something is unusual about you.” The woman said, stomping her foot.

I looked away from the both of them.

Ms Morishima bit her thumb, then said, “Shion!”

And the whole room froze, including the unnamed woman. The only things that were moving in it were me, Morishima, and the mysterious puddle of darkness and eyes in front of her.

“Sorry about Eleanora. She can be a bit hot-headed at times.” She said.

“You think?”

“What she means though, is that we’re here to help you if weird things have been going on. You mentioned something about ‘this world’.”

I took a deep breath, clearing my thoughts. I didn’t know if I could trust her, but it was worth a shot. “Yeah. I’m from another world.”

“You mean, you Michael, or you, as in someone else has taken his form?”

I shrugged. “It’s complicated. The latter, probably. He’s probably in my body right now.”

“Magic?” She asked.

“Magic. It’s called the Zero Collector spell. Supposed to swap bodies, but I thought it meant other people, not me.”

“And this Zero Collector spell, is it reversible?”

I shrugged again. “I dunno, lady. I don’t really give a shit either way, Michael’s life is better than mine was anyway.”

She put her hand on my shoulder. I didn’t like that. “What do you mean?” When I didn’t respond, she added, “You can talk to me. I’m a counselor after all, and trust me I’m VERY used to magical bullshit.”

I laughed. I didn’t expect someone like her to swear. I crossed my arms and shrugged her off of me, but I said, “Fine.” Then I filled her in on some basic details on my life prior to the Zero Collector incident.

She ended up hugging me. I hated when girls did that. “I’m so sorry, Cadence…”

I pushed her off me again. “Don’t call me that. I’m Michael now.”

“But, aren’t you–?”

I shot her a glance. “I said it before, I don’t care about going back. With this body, I can do everything I ever dreamed of.”

Then a monotone voice I hadn’t heard until now emanated from the floor. “Then perhaps you would want to help us out?”

I looked down at that inky shadow thing. “It talks?”

Morishima nodded. “Yeah. Shion here is a mokumokuren. No one is supposed to be able to see him besides me, though. No one from this world, at least.”

And I smirked. “And I’m not from this world.”

Shion simply stated, “And that’s why we could use your help.”

I thought about it, then walked over to her desk and sat on it, flicking the still-static Eleanora as I did. I was still smirking. “Well, let’s hear it then.”


	25. Chapter 18

It had been two weeks since I returned to my bedroom from Erina’s house. In that time, I had done absolutely nothing.

 

What? Inertia is a bitch, okay. I didn’t have any leads towards Ren’s location, I wasn’t allowed on the Academy’s premises apparently, I didn’t have anything to go off of to learn more magic at all. Erina was busy most of the time too, so I didn’t see her more than twice. Plus, it was easier to do nothing and laze the days away. I’ve always been bad about that.

I could credit my mom with getting me out of it this time, however. It was a little after midday when she burst into my room.

“Get your finest dress on, young lady!”

I looked up from my bed, “What’s going on?”

She sighed. “You still want to get into the academy, right?” I nodded. “Then you should really come to the ball tonight. Your father told me that there are a few priests and priestesses attending, and maybe if you make a good impression it could go a long way to finding yourself in the good graces of the church again.”

“Alright,” I said, sitting up. “I guess I’ll go.”

My mom beamed at me. “Good. I’ll be downstairs when you’re ready.” Then she exited the room.

I hopped up and went over through my new wardrobe. My mother had gotten me a variety of dresses during our escapade a few weeks ago, but I knew the one I’d wear. It was less of a dress and more of a ball gown, the straps hanging off of my shoulders and the bottom part floofing out wildly. It was a dark blue, but more saturated than navy. It came with a silky white pair of gloves as well.

It took me ten minutes to get it on and to stay on, instead of falling off and revealing my chest to anyone. Then I slid on a pair of very pretty sandals—thanking Erina for them—and stepped out of my room. As I descended the stairs, my mom was there, holding a small box.

“I was hoping you’d pick that dress.” She said with a smirk.

“Well, you told me to wear my best dress…”

She pushed the box at me. “Open it, I was planning on giving this to you when you were supposed to start at the Academy originally a year ago, but well…” It didn’t need saying.

I opened the box, and inside was a silver tiara, the perfect color to reflect against my hair. On the right side was three jeweled crimson feathers, each flaring out in a row. On the front was a small crimson gemstone with writing so small I couldn’t decipher it on it. I took it out and put it on my head. It fit perfectly.

“It clashes with your dress, but it looks nice with your hair.” Mom said.

I smiled at her. “I like it.”

“I wish your hair was a bit longer so I could braid it around the tiara.”

“I haven’t cut it in a while for a reason.” I said. My hair had grown out to about chin-length in the time I had been here, but it still wasn’t long enough for my tastes. It probably wouldn’t be til at least three or four moons from now, if then.

She shook her haid. “And to think you made such a big deal out of cutting it…”

“Yeah, I was a fool.” I said.

We both laughed at that. Then, we were off. When we stepped outside and there was a carriage–’can’t get mud on your dress’–I knew my mom meant business.

Once we were in the carriage, she stared me straight in the eye and said, “Please don’t do anything foolish tonight. I can assure you a lot of eyes will be watching every move you do.”

“I won’t, mother.” I shot back.

She grabbed my hand. “Seriously, promise me. I don’t think our social standing could take much more of your antics.” She paused for emphasis. “Especially your current escapades in magic.”

I placed my head in my hands, sighing. “I prooomise I won’t make a fool of us tonight.”

She patted me on the head. “Good.”

As we approached the church’s banquet hall, she hugged me before the carriage opened. “You can do this, Cadence.” She whispered into my ear. I wasn’t sure what she meant, though. I didn’t feel any anxiety at something like this, especially now that I was in a body that was actually pretty.

I still hugged her back. “Thanks, mom.”

Then, the driver opened the doors. I was astounded, the entire entrance to the hall was draped in red, including a literal red carpet for us. I looked at mom.

“Why is everything red?” I asked.

She pointed at the sky. I looked up, and sure enough the red moon was directly above us. I mentally counted the days of the moon cycle in my head. Sure enough, it was the Red Moon Equinox.

And I was wearing blue.

Before I could get frustrated at my color-clashing, my mom took my hand and dragged me out onto the red carpet. I looked around us and could see a long line of people waiting to get in, but no one but a few aristocrats were on the red carpet itself. We walked hand in hand down, up to the actual entrance to the hall. The doorman bowed to us and stepped aside.

The entrance hall was filled with people mingling, but I could tell the main party was in the next hall. The more common folk were still filing in from the side entrance, which I frowned at. I hadn’t realized the Gracile family were aristocratic enough to get special treatment at an event like this.

Then, someone poked my shoulder. I turned and was immediately taken into a hug.

“E-Erina? What are you doing here?” I asked.

She let me down, then kissed my gloved hand—eliciting a gasp from my mother. “Did you think we’d miss the Equinox ball?” She stopped for a moment and looked me up and down. “Cadence, you’re so beautiful in that! Where’d you get the tiara?”

I glanced at my mother. “She gave it to me today.” Then it was my turn to look her over—unlike me, she was wearing a gown with shoulders, it was an almost transparent color of red, and the skirt portion didn’t poof out as much like mine did. She also had a sash around her waist, a darker red that tied the whole piece together and made her already-large chest stand out a little more. “Erina, I-I…” I stuttered out, drawn by her beauty.

My mom pulled my arm though. “We gotta get to the main hall, Cadence.” She said through gritted teeth, clearly not wanting to spend more time with Erina than was necessary.

Erina bowed her head to my mom. “Sorry for distracting you, Mrs. Gracile. I just saw Cadence and had to say hello!”

My mom’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Erina. “It’s quite alright, Erina. Just, you know how tonight is.”

“Yes, I-I know.” Erina said, her voice surprising dour from a minute ago. Before my mom dragged me away, she managed to whisper in my ear, “Watch out.”

My mother and I stepped in the main hall, which was split into two levels with stairs on the side leading up to the second level. She continued to grab my arm and dragged me towards the stairs. Once we stepped on them, a voice boomed out.

“AND INTRODUCING, THE LADIES CREIA AND CADENCE GRACILE!”

I looked around to see who the emcee was, but I couldn’t see anyone. Magic, perhaps?

Then we reached the top of the stairs, and I saw why Erina told me to watch out.

“Care for a dance?” Five men my age said in unison. And lingering behind them, I could see one very familiar face glaring at me.


	26. Chapter 19

Ren and I stared at each other, each of us stepping towards the other.

But my mom had other plans. She pulled me towards one of the men, this one had a blond crew cut and dressed in a tuxedo with a red bowtie.

 

“Cadence, have you met Tanis here?” She said, placing my hand in his.

“No. I haven’t.” I said, as much malice as I could muster in my voice, but my mom didn’t seem to notice.

He kissed my hand, which sent a chill down my spine. “It’s my pleasure to have Lady Gracile’s first dance.”

Mom pushed me towards him, and with his strength he pulled me to the dancefloor.

I cursed my bitch of a mom. She had been planning this the whole time. Then I cursed Erina, because mom had seen her kiss my hand as well. Then I cursed this man for not reading my body language. Then I cursed Ren just because.

As this Tanis spun me around—don’t even ask me how I was keeping up, because I wasn’t—I met Ren’s eyes. He was watching me very closely.

Then it was a slow song, and Tanis reached a hand up to my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze.

“How is m’lady faring?”

“I’m not much for dancing, I’m afraid.” I said back.

He chuckled. “Ah, you’re doing just fine. Just follow my lead and we’ll get through this.” He pulled me closer at that so I was flush against his disgusting chest.

I didn’t know what to say, so I simply said nothing. But Tanis had other plans.

“I’ve heard that you and the Rose Dancer are finished.” He said with a smugness that said ‘I told you so’.

“Yes, we’re ‘finished’, to use your words. Whyever do you ask?”

“Well, that means the lovely lady Gracile is free to pursue whoever she wishes, yes?”

I looked him flat in the eyes and said, “I’m not dating you.”

Once again, he chuckled. “Your mom said you’d say that.” Damn her! “But, alas, my family would love to have Cadence Gracile in our household. Perhaps you might come over for tea?”

I could hear the last beats of the song playing, so I pushed him away. “Over my dead body.” I said, and stomped off to the sidelines. Tanis was still grinning though.

As I went to the refreshment table to hopefully drown myself in wine, Ren walked up behind me.

“That’s why we wanted Cade’s mom gone. Although, you probably appreciate the attention from handsome men, don’t you?”

I turned to face him, grumbling. “Why are you here anyways?”

He flourished one of his sleeves—each open-ended and poofy, and produced a badge. “It’s my right as The Rose Dancer to be here.” I looked him up and down. Certainly, he dressed the part at least—he looked more like a pirate than high society, which honestly? Suited him just fine.

“And to answer your question, no I don’t think any man here is my type.”

Ren smirked and pointed at a dark-haired man in a vest, his rippling muscles apparent, “Not even him? Cade always like bodies like that. Personally, I think he’s a bit too…bulky for my tastes.”

“I think we’ve established I am definitely not Cade. No, my tastes are more like her.” I pointed to a woman in a brown dress, her red hair done up in a ponytail behind her.

Cade laughed out loud. “Holy shit, you’re into girls!”

“So? You’re into men.”

He was out-and-out gut-laughing now. “Yeah, but you’re the one who’s mom wants children, I’m just a duelist! Ha ha ha,” He pat me on the shoulder. “Enjoy your night of courting, you ass!” Then he walked away.

Just in time for the all-too-muscular man to ask me for a dance. I growled, but acquiesced.

* * *

I was on my last nerve after my fourth dance. God, these men only thought with their dicks! The last one even asked me to duck out with him for some ‘fun’. It actually hurt my self-image some. I mean, I knew I was a lady now, but was I really like that? Erina had proved girls had sexual urges like this, but was I piggish like them?

I thought back. I couldn’t even speak to a girl really in Hartswell. Sure, I had all my lewd fantasies, but I never would be as forward as men like them. But I doubted any man would have adapted as well to being a maiden like I did, so maybe I was different?

I would have to think about it some more when I wasn’t so pissed off.

Just then, the fifth man came up to me.

“I do believe it is my turn to dance with you, Lady Gracile.” He said. I looked him over. He had dark straight hair, but it was done up in spikes. His skin tone was darker than most as well, and it told me he had foreign blood. His build was very lithe and androgynous, and he was wearing a simple black tuxedo. Notably, he was also wearing black gloves with his ensemble. Curious.

I sighed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

“That was how I was my first time to the ball as well.” He mused, taking me onto the dance floor. At least it was a fast song, so there wouldn’t be much talking.

I played my part better this time—I had managed to start learning the beats and steps to the dances over the night—and honestly? The dancing wasn’t too bad itself, almost fun even. If it wasn’t for the company, at least.

But then disaster struck, this man stepped on my foot and I fell forward, but with him on one foot he couldn’t balance us and we tumbled to the floor. Our chests touched, and it was then I noticed.

“Y-you’re a…” I mumbled, pulling myself off of her.

She hopped up and let out her hand. “Perhaps I should introduce myself again, Lady Gracile.” She let go of my hand and gave me a deep bow. “I am Haru Ephraim. Please forgive my display just now, I-I’m new to leading in the dance.”

“It’s alright, Lady Ephraim. Perhaps we should retire from the dance?” I said.

She smiled at me. “Certainly, m’lady. And please, call me Haru.”

We both walked over to the refreshments area and had the waiter pour us both a glass of wine.

“If I may, Haru, why are you dressed like that?” I asked her.

She brushed back her hair, “Well, how else would I get to dance with beautiful girls like yourself? Before this year, I had to endure the boorish advances of men like that.” She motioned her wine glass at Tanis.

“I unfortunately understand completely.” The I questioned myself before asking the next question. “So, do you…fancy women then?”

She nodded. “Yes, I do. Are you perhaps a kindred spirit?”

I smiled at her. “Very! I’m glad I’m not the only one here…”

She grabbed my free hand with hers, “Then perhaps do you want to–”

I pulled my hand away. “I’m sorry, Haru, but I have a girlfriend already. She’s on the lower floor, though.”

“A commoner?” She asked. I affirmed her statement then she continued, taking another sip of her wine glass. “Alas, all the good ones are already taken. Very well then, Lady Gracile, I will be taking my–”

“Hang on!” I said, grabbing her arm again. “I never said for you to leave. And call me Cadence, by the way.”

“But you’re not on the market..?” She said with a quizzical look in her eye.

I nodded. “Yes, well, I’d much rather have your company tonight than any of,” I motioned around the room, “Theirs. Plus, does my mother know about you?”

“N-no, I suppose not. Only my family should recognize me like this. They’re playing it off as I’m an adopted cousin from the west.”

“Good! Let me go introduce you to my mom so she gets off my back!” I said, putting on my best pouty smile at her.

She straightened her tie. “Very well, let’s go…Cadence.” She put an emphasis on my name, and it made me shiver. All I could hope was that Erina didn’t hate me too much for this.


	27. Chapter 20

My mom was eyeing us over when we made our way over to her. She was quite calculating when she wanted to.

She reached her hand out to grab Haru’s. “Cadence, who is this lovely young man?”

 

I smiled at her. “Well, he wasn’t much for dancing, but he’s quite charming.”

With a trained motion, Haru flipped the script on my mom and bowed to her. “I am Haru Ephraim, Madam Gracile.”

The look on my mom’s face was palpable. “Ephraim? Oh!” Then she looked to me. “I should have known not to doubt you, Cadence.” I wasn’t sure how to doubt you.

Then she turned back to Haru. “Where are you from, Master Ephraim? I wasn’t aware your family had a son.”

“I’m only a cousin from Oreacha, actually. But Lord Ephraim has taken me as his own in the past year…” He said, the words coming out with a very trained precision.

“Ah, well very well. That is quite kind of Lord Ephraim to take you as his son. We should arrange for tea sometime. I’d love to get to know you better.”

Haru looked to me and back, giving an effortless smile that almost swept me off my feet. “Yes, I would quite like that. Cadence here is quite the young woman herself and I would love to get to know her in a more…intimate setting.”

I could feel my face growing flush. Did she really say that? Oh my god.

My mom just tapped Haru’s shoulder though, giving her a giggle. “Oh, I like you, Haru. You’re feisty!” Then she walked off to go talk to someone else, leaving us alone.

I hugged Haru, and she embraced me back. Unlike my hugs with Erina, who was airy and would feel all over me with them, Haru’s were a bit more impersonal, but she made up for it with a sort of force to it, arching my back slightly as she towered over me.

“Thank you for that, Haru.” I said to them.

She gave me that toothy smile again. Dammit, why was I attracted to this? “It’s quite alright, Cadence. Dealing with dilettantes comes naturally to me.”

* * *

We were just aimlessly walking around the upper floor, carefully dodging the dance floor. We passed by Ren again at one point, who was busy making out with some girl. It seemed the Rose Dancer actually had some game.

Haru misread my expression as we did though and pat my back. “There there, just remember you already have a lover.”

I shook my head. “No, sorry. I just have a…history…with Ren.”

She raised her perfectly-sculpted eyebrow at me. “You know the Rose Dancer?”

“It’s complicated, but we used to date.”

“T-then you do fancy men?” She said, shocked.

I shook my head again. “Nononono, I don’t. Like I said, our situation is complicated.” Then I leaned up to her ear. “And magical in nature.”

“I-I see. I’d gladly listen to you if you wanted to tell.”

“No,” I said, “Perhaps if we have tea sometime, I’ll tell you more. But, it’s not a conversation for tonight.”

“Very well then.” She said. Then, she added, “You are a strange woman, Cadence.”

I smiled. “Oh, if only you knew the half of it.”

Then, her hands went to her heart and she mocked falling over. “God, you’re so beautiful too. You don’t understand how difficult it is to stand by you and not try to ravish you.”

W-what? I took in her dark, handsome form again as she got back up and brushed herself off. Wait, did I say handsome?

Shit. I hated that word. But, there was no other way to describe her. ‘Pretty’ didn’t really fit Haru’s style, at least tonight. My brain froze up a little as I tried to comprehend what I was thinking. Was it even okay for a boy—or, boyish like object like I was–to call a girl handsome?

I looked back over to Ren. Certainly, he was handsome too, but I didn’t feel the same attraction to him I was feeling towards Haru right now.

Haru grabbed my hand, noticing my discomfort. “Are you okay, Cadence?”

I looked at her and wrapped my hands around her neck, pulling me close. She struggled under my grip. “C-cadence? You shouldn’t be doing this if you have a gir–.”

Screw it. I mentally decided to blame the glass of wine from earlier, but I was going to do this.

And I placed my lips on hers. She resisted for a moment, but then kissed me back. It wasn’t long though before she pushed me off.

“Perhaps we should go out to the balcony…” She muttered under her heavy breath. I agreed.

* * *

I was sitting on a bench with my hands tugging at my hair. I looked inside to Haru, who was going to get us some refreshments.

Shit, I had really done it now. Why had I fallen into a relative stranger’s arms like that? Once I was close to her, I couldn’t seem to resist myself. Ughhh, I really was just a horny boy deep down, two-timing on his great and glorious girlfriend.

I placed my hand on my lips, still tasting Haru’s on mine. How was I going to explain this to Erina? Would I even have the chance to? Ren was right there, if he looked over for even a second he would have noticed. He already had it out for me!

Shit. Shit. Shit. I wanted to scream, but I knew that would just make things even worse right now.

Just then, I heard a vaguely-familiar voice behind me. “Cadence? Is that you?” I looked behind me, tears still streaming down my face, only to see the slightly-rotund Anton standing there in his priest robes.


	28. Chapter 21

“What are you doing here, Anton?”

He sat down next to me, “I should be asking you the same question…Why are you crying?”

 I wiped my face, some snot getting on my glove. My head was hung low. “I messed up…”

I noticed he was about to pat me on the shoulder, but he stopped before. “Do you need a hug?”

“No, that’s part of what got me into this mess in the first place.” I said.

He lowered his arm and set it on the bench besides me. “I see. Well, it’s not like you to cry, so I’ll listen to you if you want.”

I looked over at him. His face was non-judgmental. Thinking back to when we first met him, he was the only person who took me seriously the last time we talked too. Maybe I could trust him?

“I kissed someone I shouldn’t have.”

His expression didn’t change. “Why is that a big deal? Ren certainly hasn’t shown you the same respect.” I could hear a bit of admonishment in his voice there.

I rolled my eyes. Curse these people who aren’t kept abreast of the minutia of my life. “I’m not seeing Ren anymore.”

That made him frown finally. “O-oh! I didn’t know. I’m surprised, you two were so good for each other as long as I’ve known you two.”

I managed to make a forlorn smile. “It’s okay. I guess you could say I was the one who broke it off anyways.”

“Is this about what you said last time?”

I nodded. “And much, much more…”

“I see. I was surprised as everyone else when you said you changed your mind about the—waitaminute,” He slapped himself. “I’m getting off topic for now. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” I simply said.

“So, you kissed someone you shouldn’t have. I assume that means you already have another boyfriend?” He said, but there was a hint of mischeviousness in his voice. I thought for a second before surmising I might as well try trusting Anton. He’d been nothing but a gentleman to me so far.

“Actually, I have a girlfriend.”

Not a single muscle moved on his face. “Oh. Then, was whoever you were kissing tonight also a girl?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t realize that you loved women, Cade. You always seemed like one of the guys to a fault.” He said.

I looked away wistfully, wiping a few last stray tears from my eye. It’s kind of fucked to say, but this conversation that I’ve had far too many times already is comforting in a way. I could deal with this more than what I was thinking earlier. “My relationship with your sex is complicated.” To say the least.

He chuckled. “Ha ha ha, maybe you should talk to Lucien sometime if you want complicated.”

That had me smirking more than it should have. I still had a bone to pick with that priestess. It was good to know I wasn’t the only one dealing with shit like this though. Then again, I was just kissing a crossdressing woman so maybe it was more common than I thought.

Anton clapped his hands. “Gotcha! You’re smiling now.”

I covered my face with my hands. “I am not!!”

“Ah hah hah, now that’s a look I’ve never seen on you, Cade! Who’d have thought that she was so easily embarassed.”

I lowered my hands enough to burn him with my imaginary eye-lasers. “If I wasn’t a proper lady, I would slap you right now!” I yelled at him, raising my hand in the air.

Then someone else grabbed it. “Still your hand, Cadence. Let me take care of this fool.” It was Haru.

Both Anton and I looked over to her and yelled, “Wait!” But it was too late. I could already hear the crack.

The force of Haru’s slap knocked Anton to the floor. I ran up to him.

“Oh my god Anton, are you alright?”

He looked up to me, but I could see the stars in his eyes still. “W-what was that?”

I glared over at Haru, who was standing there dumbstruck. “That was my date.” Then I lowered my voice. “She’s known to jump to conclusions.”

Anton rubbed his cheek. “I see that now…” Then he looked over at Haru finally. “Wait, that’s a girl?”

“Yes, but keep it secret.” I said, placing my index finger in front of my mouth.

He finally sat up. “Oryenna take me, how do I keep getting involved with all of you gender weirdos…”

Haru had managed to walk over to us, and she was holding her hand out to help Anton up. He took it.

“Sorry, it seems I have jumped to conclusions, sir.” She said.

Anton just sighed. “It’s fine. Not the first time I’ve been assaulted by a woman.” He was staring right at me. Somehow it didn’t surprise me that Cade and him had fought before.

“Haru, this is Anton.” I said, jumping between them. “And Anton, this is Haru.”

Haru smirked as they shook each other’s hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Anton rubbed his cheek again. “Yeah. A pleasure alright.” Then he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Listen, I’ll catch up with you later, Cade. If you want my advice, just go talk to your other partner. You’ll figure it out.”

“I sure hope so. See you later, Anton.”

He gave another mock-bow to Haru as he passed by and stepped inside. As soon as he was gone, I realized.

He was probably one of the people I could talk to about getting my apostasy overwritten.

Dammit.

It was Haru’s turn to rub my shoulders. “You sure have a lot of interesting friends, Cadence.”

“Would you believe I’m actually an apostate?”

She giggled. “Oh yes, I know all about when you defaced that statue.” She leaned into my ear. “It was quite funny what you did to it.”

“Yeah, it was wasn’t it.” I said, my eyes closed so I wouldn’t get more flushed from her being in my face. I still didn’t know what I did to the statue, for the record.

She thankfully pulled away from me after that. “Want to go back inside? It’s almost time for the last dance.”

I looked around the now-empty balcony. There wasn’t anything left to do out here. Then I peeked inside. There were two men staring at us.

I wrapped myself around Haru’s arm, hoping that would stave them off. “Let’s go.” I said.


	29. Chapter 22

We managed to make it inside unscathed. I looked around the ballroom and everyone had settled into pairs baring a few adults in the corners, watching their respective children. Ren also was on the sidelines, busy flirting with—was that Lucien? Oh…I wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or not on that. Anton was there too, giving me a very solemn, knowing look that he didn’t like what was happening between them too.

 

The band was playing a long intro below us, and the crowd of couples began to move around. Without missing a beat, Haru spun me around until our hands were clasped together, her leading me in another facsimile of a dance. She hadn’t been kidding when she said she was untrained at leading, which only made me worse since I was untrained at everything.

Still, we somehow managed to get into the beat and not make a complete fool of ourselves as the dance went on. In fact, I was surprised to find that the group people were glaring at the most was Ren and Lucien, who hopped on the dance floor finally and were doing, well, calling it a dance was generous. The off-color singing wasn’t helping either. There were others of course. That Tanis guy, notably, kept his eye trained on me a lot of the time. I would have felt sorry for his dance partner had I not wanted nothing to do with the dude. I thought back to how my mom had led me to him first…Was there something there?

Haru tossing me into the air and miraculously catching me distracted me from those thoughts.

“Good job!” I whispered to her. She broke off one of her hands and pat me on the head. I shirked at that, but my face did it’s best job to betray my jubilant emotion.

There was a lull in the song, and she leaned in close to me and said, “There’s more where that came from…” to me. It was all I could do to not run away from her at that point. Why was I so easily flustered?

I leaned into her, wrapping my now-free arm around her. God, she was so warm…I looked up at her and she was smirking. “Gonna profess your undying love to me now?”

I humphed at her, but didn’t move until the song dictated we start moving quicker again. Her words stuck though. I-I was acting like a maiden in love again. A different sort of love than I have with Erina—she was wild and free, and we’d spend as much time giggling at each other—but here Haru was like a heat lamp to me, and I couldn’t resist being in her warmth. I felt…protected.

I closed my eyes, pushing those thoughts down as best I can. I can’t let my hormones get the best of me more than they have already, I’ve known Haru for all of two hours.

When I opened my eyes, we were in the middle of the dance floor. I looked all around us, everyone was in their own worlds orbiting around us.

The music swelled. I looked up at Haru, who was looking at me with her easy-going grin.

Then we kissed again.

Stupid hormones.

* * *

The song ended as our lips broke. I looked to Haru, and we were both panting—whether it be from need or from exertion, I wasn’t sure. Both probably. I glanced around the room, and I saw my mother with a tall man I had never seen before.

Haru tugged on my hand and dragged me towards them. As we got close, he yelled out “Dad!”

The man looked over at us, and smiled. When we reached him, he towered over me. Haru presented my hand to his father’s, and he reached down and took it, kissing it.

“Ah, Cadence Gracile, it’s a pleasure–” He paused, coughing for a moment. “–A pleasure to place a face to the name. I’ve heard all about your…exploits.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that, so I just gave a non-committal smile and stayed silent.

With a certain grace that hinted to where Haru got it from, he kept his smile up and said, “I didn’t expect you to be so shy.”

My mom swooped in at that, grabbing my shoulder. “It’s been a long night of courting for her, Lord Ephraim.”

“Of course, of course. I saw you two out on the dance floor.” My mom affirmed the statement, and my blush deepened. That meant they saw our kiss…

Lord Ephraim continued, “Perhaps you two ladies would like to join us for late-night tea at our residence?” Then he looked me right in the eyes. “We have much to talk about.”

My mom patted my back, pushing me forward a little. “Cadence and I would love to, right Cadence?”

I looked to her, then to the man in front of me, then to Haru, who was also intently looking at me. I sighed. There was no way around this, wasn’t there? I looked back to Lord Ephraim. “Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“Shall we meet outside? I need to send a message ahead to my husband.” My mom asked.

“Of course! Do you need a courier? I can arrange for one if needed.”

“No, that will be alright, Lord Ephraim. One of our family friends is downstairs, and she’ll pass by our house on the way home.” She said.

Lord Ephraim bowed to her. “Then we will see you two outside in ten minutes.”

* * *

Mom led me to the lower floor, and immediately saw our target: the Cothdell women. I noticed the crowd seemed to part in our wake, which unnerved me a little. This night had upended my entire idea of the social status of the Gracile family.

When we reached them, Erina’s mom bowed to us. Erina to her part immediately ran to my side. “Creia and Cadence? To what do we owe the honor tonight?”

My mom looked into the distance, then to Erina. “Cadence and I are going to be having midnight tea with Lord Ephraim and–” she emphasized the next words, “–his son. Miriam, can you stop by our house and tell my husband?”

“Yeah, Erina and I can do that, Creia. Lord Ephraim though,” Erina’s mom said, looking at me this time, “That’s a big catch…”

That caught my mom’s attention enough to start her bragging a little, which meant Erina was able to whisper into my ear.

“What happened, Cadence?”

I leaned in close to her and said, “I’m sorry…I kissed someone I shouldn’t have.”

I prematurely winced, expecting some form of reprisal, but was surprised to feel her body embracing mine instead. “It’s alright. Do what you need to do.”

I hugged her back, still a little guilty but feeling better having confessed to her a little. Did she really mean what she said? God, Erina was great…

I didn’t have a chance to vocalize my feelings before my mom’s attention got back to us. She tugged me away from Erina.

“Well, Cadence and I need to go meet Lord Ephraim now.”

Erina’s mom waved her hand at us, “Have a nice night you two.”

Then we were off to the next leg of this exhausting night.


	30. Chapter 23

I barely remember the ride to the Ephraim manor. Between the gentle rumbling of the carriage and my exhaustion from the night’s events so far, I was out. I could barely remember Lord Ephraim and my mom bantering about something or other. I eventually just leaned my head on my mom’s shoulder and passed out to her stroking my hair.

 

Someone pushed me sometime later and we were at the manor. I was the last person out of the carriage, Haru lending me her hand as I stepped off out and onto the pavement below.

“You sleep cute.” She whispered into my ear as I wiped a bit of crush from my eye. I just gave her a sheepish smile, not fully awake yet.

Until I looked up at least. As I took in the sheer size of the Ephraim manor, I was wide awake. The place was huge! I looked around us, and I couldn’t even see the end of their property in the darkness. I somehow doubted we were in Rubyll proper.

“What did you say your family did again?” I asked Haru.

She raised her perfectly-sculpted eyebrow at me. “You don’t know?”

“Entertain me.”

“My father owns most of the land Rubyll sits on.” She replied.

Instantly it all came together in my head, why my mom was so eager to please the Ephraims: She was a gold digger. This wasn’t just about maintaining our status in the pecking order of Rubyll, it was about jumping a few rungs up. Somehow, I had managed to play right into her hand.

Well, perhaps that wasn’t right. I had already made out with Haru twice tonight, and I suspected it might happen a third time before the night was over. Still, I felt a little slimy thinking about being my mom’s little pawn.

When we made it into the foyer, two servants—both female—were waiting for us. Lord Ephraim ordered some tea and cookies, and they were off. He himself beckoned us to follow him up to his study.

* * *

It took us five minutes to walk through the east wing of the manor to reach Lord Ephraim’s study. The walls were lined with furs, trophies, and monuments to various deeds the Ephraim family had done in the past. The thing that drew my attention the most was a large lance hanging above the window to the outside. In spite of it’s length, the actual lance was fairly thin and it had a blue wire wrapped around leading down from the point to the end of the pommel. I noticed a small gleam near the bottom of the pommel as well, presumably from a jewel of some sort.

“Admiring my lance?” Lord Ephraim asked me with a snerk.

“Yes, it’s beautiful.” I said with a half-faked awe in my voice.

He reached up and tapped the jewel. “Old Niebelief here served me well in my younger days.” Then he lowered his voice so that only I could hear it. “I plan to bequeath it to Haru some day if he lives up to my expectations.”

“I-I see…” I was less worried about the history of the thing than the name, which seemed curious for this region. I hoped if and when I got into the Academy I could learn more about the history of Pharenth and the world at large.

Then Lord Ephraim turned and sat on one of the many chairs in the study, with Haru arranging a couple others in something of a circle. I was seated across from Haru and next to my mother.

But Lord Ephraim was focused on me. “Your mother tells me you wish to return to the academy, Miss Gracile?”

“Please, call me Cadence,” I said, “But, yes, I’ve had some time to ruminate on my actions and future.”

My mom put her hand out in front of us, catching everyone’s attention. “If I may Lord Ephraim, Cadence has turned around quite a bit in the past two moons. She’s eve–.”

Lord Ephraim put up his hand. “Madam Gracile, I appreciate your input, but if I am to help with your daughter’s problems, I’d love to hear from her. I’m sure you and I will have ample time to discuss in private later.”

She was stunned. My mom dropped her hand back to her side, and bowed her head. “Certainly, Lord Ephraim.”

Lord Ephraim waved his hand away. “Enough with this ‘Lord’ nonsense. My name is Orom.” My mom recited her statement once again, this time with his first name and even more chastisement. I almost felt sorry for her. “Now where were we, Cadence?”

I blinked, matching his gaze. “We were discussing my desire to return to the academy.”

“Ah yes, that. Why do you want to return specifically?”

I thought for a second before answering. “Well, I was thinking about the past, and–”

“–Enough of that, now. It’s a simple question, Cadence. Why do you want to return to the Academy.” He said, a hint of disdain infecting his voice now.

Clearly he didn’t want justifications or a sideways response. I looked around the room—first to my terrified mother, then to Haru, who was looking on with a curious look on her face. Then back to Orom, his gaze harsh upon me.

I thought about it a second more. There was only one real reason I wanted to go to the academy, right?

“Magic.”

The upturned grin on Orom’s face indicated to me that I managed to answer to his satisfaction. He clapped. “Now that’s what I like to hear. Short and simple.” He perched his hands on the bridge of his nose. “Now why do you want to learn magic?”

I didn’t hesitate this time. “I have a talent for it. Did you hear about our house fire?”

“No. Pray tell.” He said. I could feel my mom’s eyes burning into my skull, but that didn’t matter right now.

“I burnt the upper floor of our house down with a single spell.” I said with as much bravado as I could muster.

He clapped again. “Now that, that’s magnificent.”

I pointed at him. “I can demonstrate right now, if you want.”

“Ahaha, no that won’t be necessary, Cadence.” He replied.

I made an exaggerated shrug with my hands, “Your loss.”

The room was filled with Orom’s raucous laughter and clapping. “You’ve certainly lived up to your reputation, Cadence Gracile.” Then he grew serious. “I can’t get your apostasy revoked immediately, but I can pull some strings and set you up a meeting with one of the elder priestesses if you so choose. That being said, I must ask: Is the academy truly where you wish to go?”

“What do you mean?” I asked back.

He drummed his fingers on his chair. “I’m just saying, Oryennan magic is…structured. Perhaps some…off the books learning is more appropriate for one such as yourself?”

That was enough. Before I could respond my mom stamped her foot and stood up. “Lord E—Orom. You can’t be suggesting what you are saying?”

He looked at her. “Sit down, Madam Gracile. All I’m saying is that Cadence is already an apostate. Perhaps looking into less than ethical options is preferable to her.”

“Yes, but what of her future? My daughter’s already dodged execution once!” My mom said, clearing the ground between her and Orom in two steps.

“And that means she’s resourceful enough to dodge it again.” He said with a smirk, finally standing up to his full height, eyeing my mother.

But before either of them could continue, there was a knock on the door. One of the servant girls came in.

“Lord Ephraim, your tea is ready.”

There was an unsteady glare between the two adults, then they sat back down. Orom beckoned them over. “Yes, of course.” Then he added to my mother, “We will be discussing this more at a later date.”


	31. Chapter 24

Tea was a tenuous affair. The tension between Orom and my mom had only barely settled, and they were glaring at each other. To my part, I found it quite humorous. For all my time here, no one had really stood up to my mom like this. Especially anyone who might have some authority over her.

 

The more important part however, was what he was saying earlier. Truthfully, I didn’t have any reason to re-join the church besides my pursuit for more magic, so the idea that he might have alternative methods for me to be schooled in magic did make sense to a degree. My one worry would be leaving Rubyll, I had grown accustom to the town and it would be disheartening to leave the few people I knew here. I mentally noted to think about it some more later and filed it away as yet another complication of my life.

The tea, at least, was delicious.

My mom finally broke the silence. “So, where was your daughter tonight, Lo—Orom?”

He looked at Haru, betraying his thoughts. “Alas, she has become something of a shut-in in the past few months. It’s quite tragic.”

My mom gasped. “Trauma?”

“I wish I knew. The only one she speaks to much these days is Haru here.” He pat Haru on the shoulder.

Haru shook her head, shocked by the fact she became master of her own destiny. “I don’t know much more than any of you.”

“Poor girl.” My mom said, dipping her head into her tea.

Orom looked to me. “Actually, I was wondering if your daughter could help with that.” He smirked a little. “I was hoping some female companions might help her out of the stupor she’s in.”

Haru and I did our best to stifle laughs, but it was impossible. My looked at us blankly. “A-am I missing something here?”

Orom’s eyes grew wide, silently pleading with us to calm down. “Yes, pray tell, you two.”

I shook my head though, “Nothing, nothing. Just a jest between Haru and I at the ball tonight.”

“Uh huh…” My mom replied, still suspicious but otherwise relieved.

* * *

I was staring into my empty teacup. The servants would be here any moment to dispose of them.

Orom stood up once and set his on the tray. He looked up at a clock on the wall. “Well, it’s a little after two in the morning. Perhaps it would be best if we retire?”

My mom eyed him. “Yes. Lets.”

As soon as the servants came in, they bowed to us.

“Mary, if you’ll take care of the dishes. Liesel, would you kindly show Madam Gracile to my wife’s wardrobe. Surely some of her clothes will fit her.” Then he turned to Haru. “Haru, you do the same. Please escort Cadence to Liya’s room and awaken your sister. Then escort her to the guest chambers.”

The maids and Haru bowed to him, and we were off. As I looked off at mom walking in the opposite direction as us, I could tell that she was uneasy about my being away from her side.

I, of course, didn’t mind in the least.

When we were out of earshot, I said. “So…Liya?”

Haru scratched the back of her head. “Haru’s my middle name. Truth be told, I prefer it to Liya. Liya’s never really suited me.”

“I understand that feeling.”

She pursed her lips. “Do you not like being called Cadence?”

“I’ll explain it to you once we get to your room.” I said.

“Well, I don’t sleep in there anymore, but okay.” She said. I guess that made sense, Haru probably had a separate room to keep up appearances.

When we reached the room, she pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Inside was a sparsely-decorated room. There was a canopy bed in the middle of the floor, a large wardrobe stuffed to the brim with frilly clothes, and very little else.

“You can pick out any of my old clothes, Cadence.” She said. I nodded and began digging through the wardrobe for something in my size.

In the meantime, Haru sat on the bed, tilting her head backwards towards me in a curious manner. “So, about what you were saying earlier…”

I stopped what I was doing and turned around. “Can you promise me you will never speak of any of this with anyone besides me?”

“Yeah, of course.” She said, straightening up again. “You can trust me, Cadence.”

I pointed at her. “That’s the thing. I…I am not Cadence. Or, I am, but I’m not. It’s complicated.”

“Complicated how?” she asked, bewilderment on her face.

Then I sat back and began telling her about the [Zero Collector] spell and how Cadence and I got mixed up. I didn’t have too much time, so I glossed over some things—most notably that I was a boy.

At the end, her mouth was agape. “So…you’re not from this world?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m just someone who was very unlucky. Or very lucky, I don’t know anymore.”

She paused for a minute. “That’s…a lot to take in.” I nodded back, then she continued. “But, you prefer being Cadence? Did I understand that right?”

At this point, I was still fully dressed, sitting beside her on the bed. I rest my head on her shoulder. “Yeah, I do. My old life wasn’t that great, the more I think about it.”

“Even still. It must be hard pretending to be someone you’re not.”

I buried myself deeper into her neck, looking up at her. “See, that’s where your wrong., I’ve never felt more like myself than I have here in Rubyll. Besides…” I kissed her on the nape of the neck. “I’ve got to meet people like you and Erina. You know, she said I could do what I wanted tonight?”

She gave me another signature smile, her eyelid drooping just enough to give her that oh-so-sexy look. “Oh yeah?”

I raised my head and bit her ear. “Mmmhmmm…” Deep down, I hoped I wasn’t misinterpreting Erina’s comments. I mean, I know I was letting my gross horniness get the best of me, but…

Fuck it, I’ll deal with the consequences later.


	32. Chapter 25

A knock on our door woke me up. I pushed my mom’s arm off of me—she truly was a horrible sleeper—and got up. When I opened the door, one of the maids was there, holding a pile of clothes.

 

She bowed to me. “Lord Ephraim requests your presence.”

“Okay…let me wake up my mom and get changed…” I said, grabbing the clothes from her.

“Let me rephrase that. Lord Ephraim requests your presence alone, Cadence Gracile.” She said.

“O-oh.” I looked over at my sleeping mom. I guess it couldn’t hurt. “Give me a minute to get changed.”

Then I shut the door and scrambled out of Haru’s old sleepwear, pulling on the simple dress the maid gave me. It barely went down to my shins and the sleeves were much too long, clearly made for someone Haru’s height rather than mine. Then, as quietly as possible, I left the room.

The maid led me back to Orom’s study, where he was already sitting—fully dressed—with a tray of pastries and tea in front of him.

He beckoned me over. “Cadence, it’s a pleasure to see you this morning.” I rubbed my face, trying to make me look a little more presentable as he continued, “I trust you found my accomodations worthwhile?”

“Yes, I slept as well as I could given I was sharing a bed with my mother.” I said while pouring a cup of tea and grabbing a pastry with red filling spilling out the end.

“Heh. Very well then.” Then he motioned for me to take a seat, which I did. “That wasn’t all I was talking about, Cadence.”

I took a bite of the pastry before saying, “What do you mean?”

“Cadence, the scent of sex is all over you.” Immediately, I froze up, running my free hand down my body and trying to ascertain how I looked. Orom continued, “I presume that means you know about Haru’s…predilections?”

I nodded at him, still stunned.

He set down his tea. “And you are okay with that?”

I took another sip of tea before answering. “Y-yes, sir. Truthfully, I’m the same way as your daughter.”

He closed his eyes and smiled. “That’s good that she found a kindred spirit. I was worried when she took on her new identity that she would never find a lover.” He paused for a moment. “You seem like a spirited young woman, Cadence. Perfect as a partner for my daughter.”

“Thank you. I’ve only known her for a night however.”

“And yet you already slept with her…or was that her doing afterall?”

I stared at the floor, still not over how frank he was talking about his daughter’s sex life. “I prefer not to think about things in such terms.”

He did his signature chuckle. “Very well then, Cadence. My point with all of this is, I wish to extend my fortune and resources to your continued education.” I looked back up at him, my face still staring at the floor. “On the condition that you continue to court my daughter.”

It took me a moment to comprehend those words. Perhaps it shouldn’t have, but the way he said it almost sounded like a threat. I wasn’t really sure why I was hesitating though, he essentially gave me permission to continue seeing Haru and I’d gain his support in whatever further trials I expected. In a lot of ways it was perfect.

Then I thought back to poor Erina. I really, really needed to have a real conversation with her. I didn’t want to lose her in all of this…

“Well then, Cadence?” Orom said, clearly waiting for an answer. Knowing his personality, he likely wouldn’t take a rain check for an answer. I had to choose right now. And, well, I didn’t want to lose Haru after the night we had…

I stuck my head up, trying to put on as much airs as I could. “That sounds reasonable to me, Orom.”

“Perfect.” He said in a conniving voice. “Now, I know you were predisposed last night, but did you think more about what we discussed last night?”

I took another sip of tea. “I’m unsure as of yet. You’re right that I think the academy would be constricting for me, though.”

“I see…” He waited after that, as if debating whether to reveal his next statement to me. In the end, he did. “Can I trust you with a family secret, Cadence? Not even your mother can know.”

I stifled a laugh at that. “Trust me, there’s a lot my mother doesn’t know about me.”

He looked at me with understanding eyes. “Heh, very well. To get to the point, I don’t trust Oryenna or her church. Ever since the war ended all those years ago,” I noticed he glanced as Niebelief as he said that, “I’ve participated the bare minimum in church affairs, and I’ve watched as the church has only tightened it’s grip around the affairs of Pharenth and abroad…”

I looked at him expectantly, not sure what he was trying to say. Thankfully, he continued.

“To that end, I’ve funded numerous ventures to undermine the church. For example, the monastery in the town square? That was made with my permission. More importantly, I have a number of apostate mages in my employ. I can assure you that they can teach you far more than the Academy can.”

“But it would be filled with danger, right?”

“Of course. There’s far more to this world than the facade of peace that Oryenna has instilled on this land.” Then, he exhaled, done with his speech. “The choice is your Cadence, I will support you in either case as long as our terms are not breached.”

“I would like some more time to think on it. This is…a lot.” I finally said.

He stood up, walking over to me, offering me his hand. “I understand, Cadence. Decisions such as these are not made lightly. Let us go meet the others.”

I took his hand and let him pull me up. Then, we left the study to meet with Haru and my mother.

When we entered the dining hall, Haru and my mom were dead silent across the table from each other.

“So you finally decided to join us?” My mom said, scowling.

Orom sat down next to Haru, grabbing a piece of toast and spreading some jam on it. “I apologize for taking your daughter so early in the morning. We had some important business to discuss…”

Orom called a carriage for us after breakfast. My mom scowled the whole way home.


	33. Chapter 26

By the time we were home, the men in the family had already left for their job. Mom left me to my own devices for a while, but I was still exhausted from everything last night so I just crawled to my room and fell back asleep for a few hours.

 

When I came back downstairs, my mom was sitting in the kitchen.

“Cadence, come over here.” She said.

“What’s going on, mother?” I asked as I came up beside her. She was standing over a pot of a green, well, sludge is the best word I had for it.

She then poured some of the sludge into a cup, offering it to me. “Drink this.”

I took it from her, sniffing it. No, it did not smell any better.

“What is this?”

She rolled her eyes. “Just drink it first.”

I looked at her. Her expression was serious. So, I took a deep breath and downed it. I almost vomited as it hit my tongue, the sludge was absolutely awful in every conceivable way. I coughed, about to gag it up when my mom grabbed the top of my head and pulled it back.

“Don’t you dare spit it out.”

I did my best and managed to, somehow, gag it down somehow.

“Eugh, what was that?” I managed to say, still choking some of it down.

She sighed and leaned against the stove. “Midwife’s Break. You’ll probably have a stomach ache later, by the way. I had to brew it up because you haaad to go and fornicate with Lord Ephraim’s son. I don’t want grandchildren yet.”

“Seriously? I-I didn’t–” I shouted.

“–Don’t play dumb with me, Cadence. It took you an hour to change clothes,you smelt sex, and your hair was a mess. It doesn’t take much to put the pieces together.” She was glaring at me.

I did my best to hold her gaze. Why was it I had so much more trouble facing her than I did with Orom or others? “…Fine then. You’re right, I had sex with Haru last night.”

She sighed, a curious expression flashing on her face. “I’m not mad with you, you know. I was a lusty teenager once too. I just wish you had chosen a better family.”

I cocked my head to the side. “What do you mean? Haru and Orom seemed nice enough to me.”

“Oh to be young again,” she started. “It’s just, I don’t know anything about your boyfriend now, and I don’t trust Orom after last night. To so brazenly suggest you go against the church like that…Not to mention the fact their daughter has turned into a hermit. There’s something weird in that family, and I don’t like it.”

“But they’re rich.” I chimed in.

She gave a resigned nod. “That’s the only reason I’m not forbidding you from seeing Haru. Unfortunately, the Ephraims are the highest class here in Rubyll…” She stomped her foot, turning around and giving the pot on the pan a swirl. “Cadence, why couldn’t you have just done what was asked for once and courted Tanis?”

“So, you were lying after all about the ball being a way to meet someone to get me into the academy.” I growled at her.

“Not so. We did get you into touch with Lord Ephraim, after all.”

“Yeah, but that was an accident. And all my doing.” I said flatly. “All you did was try to make me dance with men I didn’t know.”

“B-but!–” She tried to explain, but I stopped her.

“Be real with me, mother. I told you the truth, so you should too.”

She set down her ladle and turned back around to face me, scowling. “You want the truth? Fine. Yes, I set you up. With Tanis Dounton, specifically. I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you to know how few people in high society want anything to do with an apostate like you.”

“What? So you’ve been trying to sell me off behind my back now too!?” I said, actual fury starting to rise from me. I hadn’t known to the extent how planned everything was.

“No, no, sell you off? I wouldn’t do anything like that, Cadence. It’s just, our family has a reputation to maintain and you’ve been compliant for once in your life. It’s natural for girls your age to start looking at your marriage prospects.” She said as if this was the most simple thing in the world.

“And what about my feelings or thoughts?” I said, shaking.

“If I left you to your own volition, you’d probably run off with Erina, and our family cannot handle something like that. Given your past status, our family is already a black sheep in the high society of Rubyll.” She laid out, but then she added, “Thankfully, you have a lover now so I don’t have to worry about that specific scenario playing out.” She let the words linger in the air, but then opened her mouth one more time. “Riiiight?”

I looked at my hands. My whole body was on fire, I could even feel tears of fury roll down my face. I knew my—no, Cade’s mother was callous, but this was next-level. I curled my fist into a ball, raising it into the air. But then I stopped. I wouldn’t let that masculine tendency towards violence solve this. I wasn’t Cade, after all. Instead, I turned away and ran out of the room—out the door, and down the street.

I had only a vague idea of where I was going, but I just couldn’t stay there with a conniving bitch like her. How dare she try and stop me from seeing Erina of all things! I wasn’t going to lose her like that.

I soon found myself outside of the market. It was late afternoon and most of the shops were closing up for the day. I wasn’t here for them anyways, especially after I saw Erina’s family wasn’t there. Even if I had no money, there was one place in town that my family wouldn’t be able to find me at.

As I knocked at the secret entrance and went inside, it suddenly dawned on me. I was doing and thinking the exact same thing Cade had done before.

A worse thought struck me next.

Had anything I had done in this world truly mattered if I ended up in the same place?


	34. Arc 4: Wing Snare

As I rounded the corner, I could only imagine my frown turning even deeper.

In the far corner of the monastery was Ren and his two goons. They immediately noticed me too. Ren stood up, strolling over to me.

 

“What are you doing here?”

I ran at him, and in an uncharacteristic move, slapped him. “Why are you everywhere I seem to go, you goddamn fool!” I shouted, perhaps a bit unfairly.

He rubbed his cheek. “You’re lucky I wouldn’t harm Cade’s pretty little face, else I’d do much worse than slap you right now.”

I raised my hand to slap him again, tears streaming down my face for some reason, but Anton rushed over and grabbed me.

“Hey, hey, Cade. Calm down.” Then he glanced at Ren. “And what are you even talking about right now, Ren?”

Ren turned his back to us, stomping back over to his table. “Bah, whatever. You ain’t worth it you worthless body-snatcher.”

I shook my body and Anton released his grip on me. “Why are you three here?” I asked him flatly.

“They’ve been drinking non-stop since the ball last night. I gotta keep an eye on the two of them before they get in major trouble.” He said, eyeing the table. Sure enough, Lucien—in all her naked glory—was calling over Thrax for another round. “Anyways, what’s eating you? I’ve never seen you go off on Ren like that before.”

I rubbed my eyes free of any tears and looked him in the face. “Family troubles.” I decided to go with.

Anton nodded. “You seem to have a lot of those.”

I slunk to my knees, tears beginning to flow again. “I hadn’t recently…but, but…she’s…” I said, trailing off. It was harder than usual to get it all out.

Bless Anton’s heart, though, because he just patted my shoulder and tried to tug me towards the table with them. “Hey, Cade. Come over here. I think you’re in better company than you think on this specific matter at the moment.”

I didn’t know if I believed that, but I was willing to trust him at the moment. It’s not like Ren’s presence could make it much worse. So, I followed him over to the tab,le, sitting down next to Lucien. Anton made sure there was as much distance between us as possible.

“Y-you’re pretty…” Lucien said to me, making me question whether she actually recognized me at the moment. From how flush her cheeks were, she clearly was out of it.

Thrax was thankfully there and poured me a glass of wine. I thanked him and downed half of it immediately.

“Why is she sitting here.” Ren said to Anton.

He just glared at Ren. “Ren, I don’t know what happened between you two but she clearly is having a rough time at the moment. Stop being an ass.”

Ren took another sip, growling as he did so.“What’s got the bitchy princess down? Did that guy you were kissing last night walk out on you?”

“Nothing like that, you imbecile. Haru is far more accommodating than you’ve ever been to me.”

“So you did find yourself another man after all that grandstanding about how you’re into women last night, ha!” Ren said, snapping his fingers at me.

I opened my mouth to respond, but Anton beat me. “Uh, that person Cade was with last night was a woman.”

Ren looked incredulously at Anton. “For real? How do you know.”

“Well, we had an…encounter.” Anton said as he rubbed his cheek.

“I can very much confirm that Haru is a woman.” I chimed in.

Ren let down his guard for a minute and smirked. “Oh can you, now?”

I just smiled and left it to his imagination. I know what someone like him would say if I actually said I had sex with Haru. Ren downed glass, then waved his hand for another. “Well, you should be all fine and chipper then! Not assaulting me for the mere crime of existing as you were.”

I cursed to myself, the conversation almost drew me away from the existential crisis I was facing. I looked away from the table, not wanting to show more weakness than I already had. “Y-you should know damn well what has got me down right now.”

Ren drummed his fingers on the table. “So, she finally got to ya, did she?” He said with a sneer. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

“Yeah…” Was all I could get out.

He slammed the table. “HA! Serves you right, you heartless bitch!” He was triumphant, soaking in the ‘I told you so’ glory. “Wanna go back to your old body? Offer’s still on the table if you want to be compliant.”

I didn’t even have the will to answer him.

“Hey, Ren,” Anton ended up saying, “What’s this about bodies?”

Ren laughed. “Oho, you guys don’t know, riiiight?” He slammed the table again, making sure Lucien was semi-lucid for this. “Pay attention now, you two, because this lady right here ain’t the Cade we know. She’s just a goddamn thief who stole her body with a magic scroll. She refuses to give up the body too, prefering to leave Cade trapped in whatever hell-hole this bitch crawled out of.”

Anton and Lucien both looked at me, their expressions unclear. My mind, however, was very far away from here. I knew I should be mad that he was revealing my secrets like this to the world—hell, I’m certain even Thrax probably heard it from how he was shouting it—but, well, what’s even the point?

“T-that’s a lot to take in, Ren.” Anton finally said.

“Well, it’s true. I mean, just look at her right now, she’s not denying it!”

I hung my head as low as I could go. They were all waiting for me to say something, but I just didn’t have the will. No one here would understand anything I was feeling anyways. How could they? There was literally no one in this world who could understand what I was going through right now.

“Cade, say something.” Someone—I wasn’t sure who—said. My stomach began to turn. I was definitely going to throw up, wasn’t I? At least it gave me an excuse to get away from here…I got up and ran across the hall, into the women’s restrooms, managing to make it to one of the sinks before I heaved my stomach contents into it.

My vomit was a dark green. Why did I ever drink that crap? She did say that it would upset my stomach…

* * *

I heaved a few more times in those minutes before finally slinking down next to the wall. I didn’t want to go out there and face them. It was safer in here where no one could get to me.

But fate had other plans. There was a brief knock on the wall, and Lucien stumbled in, still completely naked. Now that I could get a good look at her, she was actually rather pretty in an androgynous sort of way—different from Haru’s androgyny, though. Her breasts were only halfway-formed, and she had none of the muscle that Haru had. She looked much more squishable in a good way. In between her thighs was a familiar object to me, too. That didn’t bother me as much as I figured it should have. She also looked like she had sobered up just a little bit.

“You okay?” She asked me.

I stared at the floor. “I-I’m fine…”

She leaned against the wall. “You don’t look like it.” When I didn’t respond, she continued, “L-look, Cade. Or whoever you are. We got off on the wrong terms, but I don’t plan on holding it against you.” That made me finally look at her. “Between you and I, I’m glad Cade is gone.”

I closed my eyes. Where had I heard this before? “Not the first time I’ve heard that.”

She giggled—actually, honest-to-goodness giggled—I didn’t expect that from Lucien. “I’m not surprised. Cade was more adept at making people mad than she was at making friends.”

“…Yeah, heh.” I said, surprising myself by giggling back.

She rested her hand on my head. “Let’s get back out there, then. Anton will understand too, I think.”

I groaned. “That’s not what I’m stressed about though. Truthfully, I don’t feel bad about taking Cade’s body. It’s just, everything else…” I leaned into her, resting my head on her thigh. She was soft.

But it wasn’t to last, as she immediately jumped and straightened up at the contact. “L-look, Cade—do you use that name still?”

“I prefer Cadence, actually.” I said. Cade felt very much like someone else’s name.

“Cadence then. One of our jobs as members of the priesthood is to listen to the people’s problems. I know it’s weird to say, but you can trust me at least.”

I sighed, knowing she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Fine. But you keep this between us, right?”

“Of course.”


	35. Paralogue 3: A Moth

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

 

Then, finally, light. Stimuli. Oh, how long had it been since I could think! A day? A week? A moon? A year? A decade? A century?

Darkness…

Thump.

Clink.

Noise now? Is it time? Nononono, don’t get your hopes up. It’s probably just my sister again, come to taunt me.

“–certain it’s here?”

“–map says…”

Voices? Not the voices of our sister. I think.

Clang.

Darkness. Please no.

“Do you got a torch?”

“I’ll do you one better. [Brighten].”

Light!

Darkness, but also light! No torch. Magic?

Magic!?

Magic.

Words.

“[Brighten.]” Words! I can say them!

No light.

No magic.

Faces. Jeweled armor on one. Robes on the other. Men.

“That wasn’t you.” Armor said.

“Correct. It confirms this is who we were looking for, however.” Robes replied.

If I speak, what else?

Arms. Legs. Wings.

Clang.

Bound.

Armor stares. “Can you understand us?”

My head? I have a head? It moves.

“We should undo her bindings.” Armor says.

“Let me look at them first.” Robes says. Robes looks, shining on metal. “Magical jewels. I can undo them, but I need some time.”

“We have all the time in the world.” Armor is stares at me still. “What’s your name, miss?”

Name?

Think.

“Nyat.”

“No?” Armor is stupid.

“No. Nyat.”

“I’m sorry miss, I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Armor is still stupid.

Clang.

I raise my arm. Free. I touch Armor.

“Nyatlisyah.” I say.

“Nyatleesyuh?” Armor says.

“No. Nyat-lis-yah.”

“Nyatlisyuh?” He tried.

Clang.

My other arm is free. I use it to rake my claws across his face, blood flowing from it.

“Ow!” He says. He grabs my arm. “I know you’ve probably been down here a long time, miss, but civilized people don’t do that sort of thing.”

I lick the blood. Essence.

Clang.

One wing is free. This mage works faster than expected.

It feels good to think again.

“What’s your name?” I ask Armor. I don’t care as much as I pretend I do.

He gives a grin I swear I’ve seen before in the ancient past. “Leon. And my friend here is Niam.”

I commit those to memory. They will have my blessing.

Clang.

My other wing is free. I can move my back now safely. The holes in my wings will never be fixed, but they should be able to fly still.

“How did you find me?” I ask again. The voices reinvigorate me.

Leon pulls out a map from his satchel. “This. We intend to free all of your siblings, actually. Do you want to help us?”

I close my eyes. These two are more foolish than they thought. Although I can’t recall the names of my other siblings yet, I can say with complete honesty releasing them on the world would probably plunge the world into anarchy again.

They don’t need to know that, though. This world and my siblings can burn for all I care, I have other plans. However, I smile at him, whispering the sweet lies he wants to him. I don’t want them to leave me here, half-bound.

Clang.

I move my left foot. I’m almost there. I can almost feel the magic course through me, just one more damned keystone left to trap me in my prison.

“Well, miss Nyatlisyuh–”

“Lady Nyatlisyah, you mean.” I say. I can tolerate some disservices in hopes, but I earned my title.

“Right,” he says, tapping his skull. “This is my first time talking to a goddess. Forgive me, my lady.”

“You’re forgiven, Leon. It’s only thanks to you two that I am freed from my prison.”

“Of course. Anyways, I was wondering if you had an opinion on where next we should head to…”

He kneels on the floor, unfurling the map. Sure enough, it’s marked with a spot for each of my siblings. Where did he get such a thing? The only person who would even keep track of that would be that damnable Oryenna…

Clang.

“[Illuminate.]” I say immediately, letting a brilliant light shine upon everything inside here.

I raise my hand to the ceiling, then yell, “[Brimstone Volley!]” A beam of flaming energy explodes from my hand, burning a hole through the rock and stone, revealing the bright light of the sun shining down on us. Aaah, how I missed that object.

My wings unfurl, pushing me off the ground.

“Ahahaha, I am free!” I yell, before doing a twirl in the air. Immediately, my dress apparates around me. I stare down at the two below me. I swoop down, raking my claws once again across their shoulders, leaving a glowing wound where I scratched.

“I have no interest in your fool’s journey, Leon Whitesbane and Niam Malthus. But, in deference to your freeing me, I grant you a memorial to my greatness. May you find it worthwhile.”

“Lady Nyatlisyah, wait!” Leon shouts at me.

I turn my back on him, flying out of the hole I created. “I have my own plans, Leon. May you find success in yours.” And with that, I fly out of the hole and high into the sky.

I stare above me, looking at the seven objects in the sky. It’a good to know that at least wasn’t destroyed during my imprisonment. Then, my eyes turn sideways, revealing the truth of the world.

To the south, there are two dots, one bright and one dim. The bright one I immediately recognize as my sister, but the other…that’s new. To the west, I see the other bright dot—a little less so than my sister, but still far eclipsing anything else. That must be my brother.

I turn my attention to the third dot, however, and burst into supersonic flight, yelling a dozen spells as I do.

In no time flat, I find myself in what would must be one of my brother’s monasteries. His attendant stares at me. I’m surprised my brother gave him the ability to discern magic like that. He reaches for something in his robe, but I don’t give him the chance.

I run him through with my claws, then with another spell consign his corpse to dust. I look around—the two patrons in the hall didn’t notice a thing. And in one of the side room, brighter than anything before, I see my actual target.

I phase through the wall, staring at the naked, androgynous person—clearly my sister’s work, from the traces of magic flowing through them—and my target, brighter than everything.

Neither of them notice me. All the better. I don’t recognize the magical signature on my target, it connects to neither the old magic or the magic of any of my siblings. How curious.

I reach into her body, feeling for the heart. When I find it, I trace the magical lines in her body, trying to find the nucleus to it all.

It doesn’t take me more than a second. I plunge a claw into the magical nucleus, and let it inform me.

I see.

I see.

How fascinating.

I stand away from her, not snuffing out her mortal life. My gift to her for granting me this knowledge.

I leave the monastery, my task succeeded. Once I’m back out into the sky, I trace the lines I just learned with magic into a cloud. I smile, my freedom nearly at hand.

Then I say the words.

“[Zero Collection].”

Darkness.


	36. Chapter 28

It felt like my heart skipped a beat. I blink for just a moment, and what was that?

“Did you see something just now, Lucien?” I asked.

 

“Noooo. Should I have?” She replied.

I rubbed my chin. “I could have sworn that I saw a—actually, nevermind. I’m just seeing things.”

Lucien squinted at me, but then shrugged.

Weird.

“So, about what we were talking about…” Lucien prompted.

“Right, sorry…” I said, putting the weird figure I saw a moment ago aside. “Actually, I have a question of my own about you.”

“What’s that?” She said, clearly surprised.

“Why are you naked?”

Immediately, a bit of red crept up her cheeks. She crossed her legs and turned her body away from me.

“…I lost my clothes to Ren…” She whispered. Of course it was something like that. I finally stood up off the floor and tugged off the top layer of my tunic, handing it to her. She pulled it on. Lucien was a fair bit taller than me, but it still managed to cover her most important parts which was good for both our sanity’s sake.

I leaned against the wall again. “Feeling better?”

“Yes, thank you.” She replied, immediately back to normal. “So, as you were saying…”

Right. I was in the middle of an existential breakdown, wasn’t I? I felt a lot calmer at the moment. I shut my eyes, it always helped me think better. “Since I swapped bodies with Cade, I’ve been trying to repair a lot of the relationships she managed to ruin. The biggest one being her—or, my—it’s complicated—mother. But, just today, she said a lot of cruel things and ruined everything I was working towards…” I waited for a response of some sort, but none ever came.

“And, it just set me off, I guess. If after everything I’ve done, I ended up just running away from her mom and cursing her just the same as Cade did, then, what have I really accomplished?” Still no response from Lucien. “And that made me doubt myself. Maybe Ren’s right and I should treat this as a fantasy and go back to my world…”

Finally, she tapped my shoulder for me to stop. “Wait, so you can return?”

My lip pouted a little. “I don’t know. Ren and Cade got the spell from someone named Niam. Ren seems to think that Niam can ‘fix’ things, but there’s no guarantee.”

“Wait. Ren and Cade are the one’s who instigated this thing?” She said, looking very taken-aback.

I gave a very slight nod. “Yeah. They got the spell to banish Cade’s mom, actually. It was just an accident that Cade and I swapped instead.”

She stomped her foot on the ground, then spun in a circle. “Oryenna curse those two! That’s, like, attempted murder! Or even worse, I don’t know.” Lucien’s hand was resting on her temples, displeasure marked all across her face.

“I-I hadn’t thought about it like that…” I said.

“It’s a good thing it only seemed to ruin Cade’s life, and not anyone else’s. I think, at least.” She said, eyeing me over.

“Y-yeah…” I was staring at the floor again. “I’ve said it to Ren before, but the thought of going back hasn’t even crossed my mind recently. It’s why I’ve been so cavalier with actions like attempting to rejoin the academy.”

“Cade definitely wouldn’t like that.” She said.

“Right. That’s why Ren hates me too, because he thinks I’m ‘stealing’ his girlfriend from him.”

Lucien scoffed. “Pssh, serves the both of them right. He should consider himself lucky for dodging an inquisition much worse than the one on Cade if it ever got out.”

My face paled. Another thing I hadn’t considered. “Y-you’re not going to tell anyone, right?”

“As much as I’d like to…” Her eyes looked away from me, “Whenever I’m close to him, I end up doing things I regret…”

I covered my hand with my mouth, giggling at this surprising vulnerability. She actually looked cute like that. “You did seem quite enthused with him last night.”

She jumped and buried her face in her hands. “Oh no, don’t remind me. H-he’s just…” She trailed off, before pointing at me. “You have to understand right! Any girl would fall for him!”

“You’re not going to find a friend there, Lucien.” I said, for once smirking.

“Right, right. They were talking about you fancying women earlier. You don’t like men at all?” She said, clearly disappointed.

“No, I don’t.” I said, matter-of-fact.

“Interesting…” She said, then her voice got quieter. “I thought all girls liked men, even the ones like yourself.”

“Nope. In my old world, we actually had a word for women like myself, [lesbian].” I immediately cursed myself. Why had I said that? Lucien was somehow disarming me and making me talk in English again.

“Reh-zu-beee…” She stuttered out at that, somehow getting caught up on every syllable. Then, she realized. “D-did you just speak the language of magic!”

I sighed. “I did, sorry. Your language of magic is just the native tongue in my world.”

Her eyes went wide. “Wow! How did anything get done? It takes months to even learn just a handful of words in that language, let alone enough to speak sentences in it.”

“What? No it doesn’t.” She looked incredulous, so I added, “At least, back in my world.”

I don’t think Lucien knew how to take that, because all she said was, “You should come by the Academy again so we can talk about this more.”

“That’s the plan.” I said with a half-fake smile, Orom’s offer lingering in my mind still.

Lucien looked back at me with an actual, genuine smile on her face. And not the smile she gave lustily to Ren either. “You’re a fascinating lady, Cadence.”

“Thank you.” I said with a slight curtsy. “And thank you for listening to me too. I feel a lot better now.” Although, I don’t think I did very much venting. Well, she distracted me at least.

“Anytime, Cadence. You know where to find me. If you can get in, at least.”

“That would be the hard part.” I said.

Then, we finally left that restroom. When we exited, the two men and the monastery’s bouncer were all standing around talking to each other, their faces pained. They all stared at our approach.

“Finally decided to come out, ladies?” The bouncer growled before Ren staggered forward.

“I bet she did it. Lucien, did you see any bodies in there?” He said, pointing at me.

“Bodies? What? Who did you attempt to kill now, Ren?” She said with venom in her voice.

“Ahaha! I didn’t kill anyone—but someone has gone missing!” Ren said in his normal jovial manner.

The bouncer, at least, wasn’t playing around. He grabbed Ren and shoved him out of the way. “Thrax is missing. I was watching those two, so the only people who could have done anything were you two.”


	37. Chapter 29

“Thrax is missing?” I said, incredulous.

“Yeah.” Anton replied, “We called him over to get some more wine, but he never showed up. Then, we checked the back and…nothing.”

 

The bouncer eyed me. “The only place we didn’t check was the women’s privies, and you two were in there a while.”

I grabbed Lucien’s hand and pulled us aside. “Well, go look in there if you want.” Before any of them could move though, I raised my other hand. “But I’ll be honest, it’s been a long day and I am NOT being blamed for any of this. Lucien isn’t either.” I tightened my grip on Lucien’s hand.

The bouncer walked past me. “That’s for me to decide.” He said, then went to examine the room we were just in. A minute later he came out, puzzled. “He wasn’t in there.”

“I told you.” I said.

Ren burst in then. “But that doesn’t mean she didn’t hide the body!”

I raised my eyebrow, tired of Ren’s hijinks. “With Lucien there? Or are they an accomplice in this fantasy of yours?”

His hand curled into a fist, then he turned around and walked off. “Bah!”

I turned to the bouncer. “Listen, I like Thrax as much as anyone here, but perhaps we should call for Lord Ephraim before making accusations?”

“L-lord Ephraim?!’ The bouncer froze. “W-why would we do that?”

I tapped my foot. “Well, he bankrolls this place, right? I know about his illicit activities.” I noticed the two priests glared at that statement. “And I can assure you these two” I raised Lucien’s hand and motioned to Anton, “Won’t say a thing lest they get excommunicated from Oryenna’s church. Right?”

The bouncer squinted. “How do you know all that? What’s your name, miss?”

“Cadence Pythia Gracile. Lord Ephraim’s son and I are together.”

The bouncer cursed, but the jaws on the other people in the room—including Ren, who was nursing a drink on the other side of the room—all dropped.

Lucien leaned in my ear. “Is that the person you were with last night?” I gave her a silent nod, watching the bouncer’s moves.

“I’ll get into contact with Lord Ephraim about this, but this late in the day, it’ll be tomorrow before he can come down. I’m gonna lock this place up in the meantime.” He grumbled, but then his voice got harsh. “You will come back tomorrow, right? All of you.”

I gave him a curtsy, “Of course.”

“There’s just one problem.” Anton popped in.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Lucien and I are going to be punished for sure for being gone for the last two days. If we go back to the Academy, there’s no way we’ll be able to sneak out tomorrow.”

Ren finally spoke up from across the room. “Just stay with me, you two! The bitch can run back home all she wants…”

Anton looked exasperated. “I guess that works…” His eyes looked horrified. I thought about wondering why, but it wasn’t particularly hard to guess at why he wouldn’t want to be around those two for another night.

I looked over at Lucien. “Is that fine with you?”

I noticed she hadn’t released her hand from mine yet. Her eyes were evasive. “If I must…”

I leaned in closer to her, so no one else could hear. “You don’t sound okay with it.”

“You cannot understand how angry I am with him right now, and if I go with him I know I’ll just get seduced again…” She whispered back.

Gross. I pondered my options for a moment. Maybe I could turn this around.

“Wanna stay with me instead?” I finally asked.

Her expression upturned a little. “I was hoping you’d ask me that.”

Lucien and I shivered as we stepped into the brisk night air outside.

Ren was already stomping off, Lucien’s clothing in hand. Anton followed him, his face apologetic. The bastard was punishing Lucien for not laying him up tonight.

The bouncer was staring at us. “Get out of here, you two! I don’t want to draw any more attention than we already have!” He said, clearly displeased. His threat was meaningless at this time of day, but whatever. I stepped forward, tugging Lucien behind me.

We reached the house about a half-hour longer. I opened the door and let us in. As we stepped over the threshold to the kitchen, my mom was standing there, scowling.

“Who the hell is that?” She said, giving us a once-over, “And why is she wearing so little clothing?”

“This is my friend Lucien, and she’s staying here tonight.” I said, channeling as much defiance as I could muster.

“Oryenna take me, you’re bringing prostitutes to the house now. And I thought we were finally making some progress with your behavior.” She said, her fingers on the bridge of her nose. I could practically see her wrinkles growing.

I stomped my foot. “Lucien isn’t a prostitute! She goes to the Academy, for one.”

My mom snorted. “Please. As if the church would take someone looking like that.”

“Mother, Lu–” I began to say, but Lucien stopped me.

“Madam Gracile, we’ve met before.” She said.

My mom took another look at her, squinting. Then, a look of recognition came over her. “…Lucien?”

Lucien bowed her head. “One in the same.”

“But, you were a boy before—wait. You’re one of those priestesses now?” She said as she bopped her head.

“Yes, maam. I decided to become one of Oryenna’s handmaidens.”

“Then how did you end up looking like that,” She motioned to Lucien’s clothes.

Lucien frowned. “My, uh, friend–”

“–Ren.” I cut in. “Ren stole her clothes.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Everything comes back to him.” She seemed to be sorting out some things in her head, but she finally said, “Fine. Lucien can stay here one night. I assume you have your reasons.”

“Thank you, maam.” Lucien said.

“But,” My mom continued. “We will continue what we started the today tomorrow, Cadence.”

I closed my eyes. “Fine.”

Then her expression relaxed. “Now, go get some clothes on this poor girl. I can’t have her walking around half-naked.”


	38. Chapter 30

Lucien managed to fit into one of my softer tunics, if only barely—she was a far bit broader in the chest than I was.

She did a small twirl in the mirror. “I haven’t worn anything besides my handmaiden robes in quite a while.”

 

“You said something similar earlier…” I said.

“Oh..? Something about what?” She replied.

I sat down on my bed. “That handmaiden thing. I don’t really get it.”

She walked back over to me, sitting next to me. “You don’t know about the handmaidens?”

“No, I don’t.” I rubbed my head. “I am from another world, after all. All I know is what I’ve learned in the past two moons. Which, isn’t much.”

She nodded. “That makes sense. Especially given your status, you probably know more about Masclei’s sect than Oryenna’s.”

“Something like that. All I know really about Oryenna’s church is that I’m an apostate, and Orom doesn’t trust them.”

She leaned back. “Orom?”

I waved my hand. “Sorry. Lord Ephraim. He and I had a long discussion about his distrust of the church last night.” Then, I paused. “Uh, don’t tell anyone I said that though…”

Lucien giggled. “Cadence, you literally just met me in a Masclean monastery. If that got out, I’d be excommunicated or worse.”

“So…you don’t really believe in this stuff?” I asked.

“Believe? Oh, I believe in Oryenna. All her handmaidens meet her in their dreams. I’m not really in the church to serve her, though. If I had my way, I’d be like one of Ren’s friends and travel instead.” Lucien said.

I pursed my lips. “Really? You seemed so uptight when I met you that first time. I just sort of assumed you were really devout.”

Her eyes shifted ever so slightly to meet mine. “Hmm-hmm. I never said I wasn’t devout. It’s hard not to be when your goddess visits your dreams. It’s just, I reconcile my religion differently than most handmaidens.” Then she made a half-smirk. “I’d like to think that Oryenna and Masclei could reconcile one day. I don’t really understand why they’re in constant conflict.”

I nodded along, not sure what to say or make of this.

She looked out the window, staring at the moon in the sky. “I wasn’t always this way, mind you. When I was younger, I was a hellraiser against the powers that be, like Ren is. Being a handmaiden was just the only way to…”

She had gone completely quiet, her eyes half-lidded. Her lips trembled.

“The only way to..?” I teased out.

Her eyes drooped a little more. “…The only way to be who I wanted to be.”

I looked her over one more time. Who she wanted to be? I thought about what she meant by that for a moment. It had to be something important for her to give up everything like that, right?

Then I blinked.

Oh.

“You mean, to be a woman?” I finally said.

She slumped. “Yes, that’s what I mean. I wanted to be and now I am a woman. Oryenna is particular with her handmaidens, and gives us all a draught that slowly shapes us to her preferred, feminine, form. I-I wanted that, even if it meant I had to live a life of servitude to the goddess.” She finally looked back to me, reading my face. “Y-you must think I’m weird for that…”

But I didn’t. I’d said it before. I leaned forward and hugged Lucien. She accepted it, curling her arms around my body and burying herself into my neck.

“I don’t think that at all, Lucien. I-I…Well, can you keep a secret?”

She nodded into my shoulder.

“I was a boy before I swapped bodies with Cade.” I said. She pushed herself away from me slightly, looking up at me. God, she looked vulnerable.

“But, well, I always assumed most boys wanted to be girls. My time here has begun making me doubt that, though…”

“Then, you’re the same as m–” She began to say, her eyes lit up.

“–I don’t know!” I said, recoiling from her grip and crawling to the other side of the bed. My eyes began watering. “I’ve felt awful in my other body, I hated it so much. And since I’ve been here, I’ve felt so much more joy and wonder! But, I’ve been stealing a woman’s body. I’ve had sex with women who only liked women and it was oh so much more wonderful but I was lying to them. I’ve indulged in all sorts of things I denied or was denied in my old life…And I’ve never felt happier, but I’ve felt shame too. Like, I-I-I’m just a boy with fetishes, or that I’m deceiving everyone by being happy for myself…” I clutched myself.

Lucien crawled forward slowly, touching my shoulder. “Cadence?”

I shivered. Was it really that simple? I’d wrapped myself in knots trying to justify myself both here and in my previous life, trying to figure out what I was—what I wanted to be. But, was I just a fool all this time?

The tears fell from my eyes. I could tell Lucien was trying to get back to me, but I was far away from her.

I hesitated to say the words. It felt dumb for even making this that big of a deal. Because, it was obvious wasn’t it? I had clearly just been thinking about everything wrong. No man just wanted to be a woman, right? Just saying it now, that seemed like a stupid thing to say. All that awkwardness between me and others? That was just because they weren’t seeing the me I wanted to be seen as, not because of any weird lack of personality or anything. All the crossdressing? Why would men do that in the first place, especially when it was just to feel pretty, not for any sexual thrill.

But still, I couldn’t admit it. It just…What would I do? I became aware of the tears falling onto my knees, staining my chemise. Why was I crying? Why did it scare me so much to acknowledge the pain I’d felt for so long.

There was a snap in front of me. “CADENCE!” Lucien said, right in front of my face. Slowly, the world around me came back into focus.

“Lucien…” I eeked out, lowering my arms from my sides. My nails were red. I tried to wipe my face, but all it did was spread the tears around. “I’m sorry.”

She sighed, then hugged me. “There’s nothing to apologize about, Cadence, just, talk to me.”

I nuzzled up against her. Her body had a coolness to it unlike either Erina or Haru, but it was just as comforting. “I know it’s stupid now, but I think I wanted to be a girl too.”

“Well, congratulations.” Was all she said. It was all she needed to say.

I was a girl now. Against all odds, I had fallen into being one! I thought back to what I saw in porn and hentai. It was probably possible to change genders back on Earth, heck I knew surgeries existed for it, but it wouldn’t have been as complete—or as easy—as this was. Plus I doubt I would have ended up with two lovely girlfriends.

I squeezed Lucien tighter. “Thank you for coming over tonight.”

She returned the gesture. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.”

“Yeah.” I said. We held the hug a little longer, but eventually we had to break it off. When I looked at her, her braids were mostly undone and she had some of my tears on her. Her smile was tired, but I could tell she was trying. I found myself thinking she was rather…cute? Why hadn’t I noticed that before?

We slept well that night.


	39. Chapter 31

Lucien was curled up in a ball next to me when we woke up. I was surprised by how dainty she actually was now that we were close and intimate.

Poking her cheek, I said, “Lucien, wake up.”

 

After a moment, she stirred and looked up at me. Her eyes were still a little clouded-over. “Nnn, Cadence? What are you–” She sprung up immediately. “Oh my god last night, we–” She exclaimed.

“Yeah.” I said, shutting her down. “Yeah we did.”

Her head fell into her lap. “I’m such a sleaze. First Ren, and now you…”

I leaned over and scratched her head, undoing a tangled knot of hair as I did. “There, there. Heh, If it’s any consolation, I’m two for two too.” I giggled.

She pushed her head against my hand, willingly taking the scritches. “Right. You and Lord Ephraim’s son—daughter?”

“Her name is Haru.”

“Aahhh,” She moaned out before continuing, “The goddess isn’t going to be happy with me sleeping around with a known apostate…”

“Just don’t tell her. Or can she read your mind?” I said.

“Mmm, yes right there…” She said as I scratched her nape. “It’s more complicated than that. I can’t just not tell Oryenna about these things—ah—she has a very magnetic pull…”

“You’re such a pushover.” I said, pulling my hand off her finally.

She recentered herself as she sat up, running her fingers through her hair to straighten it. “Maybe so.”

“Well, good luck with Oryenna.” I kissed her on the cheek.

“W-what was that for?!” She said, rubbing her hand against the spot I kissed.

I laughed. “You’re so easy to tease, Lucien. It’s just a good luck kiss.”

She frowned. “You’re mean, Cadence.”

“Nope. I’m perfectly cute.” I put my index fingers on my cheeks and did a fake smile.

“Uh huh.” She said, hopping up and crawling over me—I noticed she shook her ass at me as she did though—then sliding onto the floor. She faced away from me. “Now help me braid my hair again.”

My mom had her arms folded when we came down. “Ladies.”

* * *

“Good morning.” We both said in unison, then walked past her towards the kitchen, but mom held out her hand to block Lucien. “I need you to leave.” Lucien stared at her. “I said you could stay the night, but that’s it. Cadence and I have a lot of talking to do.”

“If Lucien leaves, I’m going to. We have plans for today.” I cut in.

Mom lowered her hand and faced me. There was fire in her eyes. “You run off in a rush yesterday, then come back with a priestess and expect us to take care of them instead of the church, and you keep making these demands. Absolutely not, young lady, you’re staying here for the day.”

“But, Lucien and I’s plans are life-and-death important!” I shot back.

“I don’t care! Nothing you could have got into last night could have been good.” Mom looked back over at Lucien, venom in her eyes. “Get out of here.”

Lucien met my gaze, her expression saying “I’m sorry”. Then, she walked out.

Mom immediately grabbed my arm and pulled me into the kitchen. “I can’t believe you, I have to brew up some more Midwife’s Break. You get into a relationship with Lord Ephraim’s son, then IMMEDIATELY do your best to screw it over by sleeping with someone again—yeah, we could hear you for the record. Not just that, but a holy person no less! It’s like you’re asking for another inquisition to come breathing down your neck.”

I didn’t know what to say. Yeah, I had to admit to myself I was being a bit of a wanton slut as of late—I really had no excuse. But, it felt so good, and I was surrounded by pretty lesbians apparently, so what was I supposed to do? Well, I should have talked to Erina and Haru I guess. That part of the equation was a fair bit shitty. Even before Lucien was in the picture, well, I liked both Haru and Erina and I really needed to clear things up. It’d suck to lose either one of them.

That’s when it struck me, what was up with that anyways? I mean, most people only like one person at a time, right? My parents certainly picked a weird combination of traits for their son—no, their daughter—to have. I was still having trouble getting my head around the fact I might have always been a girl, although it felt oh so much better to admit it about myself. I felt more…free?

A slam on the table brought me back to reality. “Why are you smiling, Cadence? Do you think this is all a joke?”

I was smiling? I wiped it off my face immediately. “It’s not a joke! I…” I froze. What did I want to say? What was there really to say? I wasn’t going to apologize or beg for forgiveness for my actions. How could I smooth this over? Well, there was one thing I knew at least. “You don’t need to make any more of that stuff. Lucien doesn’t, uh, have those parts…”

My mom’s hands were on her head. “Well, that’s one problem down. That’s besides the point though. What are you thinking with your current behavio–”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

We both looked in the direction of the front door. She let her hands down and pointed at me. “We’re going to continue this in a minute.” Then she stalked off to the front door. I followed, even though I think she wanted me to stay here.

When she opened the door, Lord Ephraim was standing there. A fair distance behind him, in front of the wagon, was Lucien.

My mom’s body language immediately got more formal, and she curtsied. “Lord Ephraim! For what do we owe the appearance.”

He stepped inside, looking at me. “Sadly, I require Cadence for the time being.” My mom looked like she was about to speak, but Lord Ephraim continued, “Do not worry, Lady Gracile, Cadence did nothing wrong. Your daughter was merely witness to a crime, and I am to accompany her to the trial.”

Mom glared at me. “What were you doing last night?”

I let Lord Ephraim continue doing the talking. “Alas, the crime is of a peculiar nature, and in the interest of confidentiality, those involved have been sworn to secrecy regarding it.”

Mom’s glare only hardened. But, she did step aside. “Fine. Get on then, Cadence. You better not be out forever.”

Orom smiled, “I will have her return as soon as we’re done, do not worry.”

“Good.” My mom spat out, then watched as we walked out the door. I could hear it slam behind us when by the time we reached the carriage. Then the three of us crawled up into the wagon. I was surprised to see another figure inside.

“…Haru!” I said.

She leaned over and hugged me. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Cadence.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Lord Ephraim was the one who spoke. “It’s only natural that my son be here. It’s training for proper governance, after all.”

Haru smiled. “I also just wanted to see you.”

Lucien tugged at my sleeve. “Uh, is that who you meant by Lord Ephraim’s son?” I nodded, and her face began to grow red. I had to stifle a giggle.

Haru was only somewhat oblivious to it all. “Did something happen with you two last night?”

Then I was the one blushing.

“Aaah, to be young again.” Orom mused.


	40. Interlude 5: Forbidden Alchemy

I managed to wrap my arms around him in a vice-grip, clasping them together around his shoulderblades. It was time to end this. Using all of my body strength, I pulled him up off the ground and bent my back as far back as I could. It worked, and gravity did the rest. With a crash, we both tumbled to the floor as I managed to suplex him onto the mats.

 

I scrambled out from under him and dropped my knee on top of him and wrapping my head around his neck. A second later, the judge called it. I released him and hopped off.

Nick pushed himself off the floor, grinning. “Heeey, you beat me for once!”

I smirked. “I told you it was coming.” I walked over to the bookie and outstretched my hand. “I believe you owe me something.”

He counted out some cash and placed it into my hand. Finally this fight club was paying off for me.

Nick placed his arm on my shoulder. “Hey, wanna go grab some dinner with me and the boys? You always high-tail it out of here.”

He was looking at me with very bright, wide-open eyes. Nick was like a dog, the more I learned. A very strong, very handsome dog, but a dog nonetheless. He had asked me numerous times before to hang out with him, but I always declined. Maybe I shouldn’t have.

“Sure.” I grunted. He hopped up, then ran off to some of the sideliners, “Hey boys, Mike’s coming with us today!”

When he jogged back over to me, he said, “Do you drive?”

“Nah.” Driving, admittedly, scared me. That everyone in this world seemed to ride around in highly-dangerous metal wagons at speeds I didn’t think possible was something I doubted I’d ever get used to.

“Aight, tell ya what, for your first time as one of the boys, you can ride shotgun with me.” He grinned. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but alright. I also noted he was already calling me one of the boys.

I grunted another affirmative and stalked my way off to the locker room. Nick hopped after me, but thankfully didn’t bother me.

Since the fight club was not a school-sanctioned program, we didn’t have access to the lockers but we still used it to change. I stripped my shirt, and looked over to see Nick staring at me.

“Damn dude, how do you keep those abs? You’re not on the swim team anymore, right?” He said.

“Yeah. I just work on them at home.” Ren had me on a training routine back in Rubyll to keep in top shape, so it was trivial to keep it going when I was brought over here, albeit I did far more reps in my new body.

I watched as he shrugged, then pulled off his wrestling uniform. Watching his dark, nude form, I could feel blood rushing to my groin. I turned away from him to protect my own modesty, but I think he saw.

“You should join the wrestling team, Mike. You clearly got the talent.” He said, apparently none-the-wiser.

I pulled off my gym shorts and pulled on my jeans, adjusting my junk to keep it from being visible. “Nah. I don’t do team stuff like that.”

“Dude, you’re tall and buff, and you’re already able to take down the vice-captain. You really should try out sometime.” He said again.

“Nick, look…” I started, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I shrugged my shirt on.

“That doesn’t sound like a no to me.” He goaded.

I faced him and he was fully-clothed too, thankfully. “No.”

“You suuuuuure?”

“Absolutely certain.” I said.

That made him huff. “Fine. But I’m gonna keep bothering ya til you give in.”

I just groaned as we walked towards the exit.

* * *

As we rounded the corner to out of the parking lot, I heard someone shout, “Mike!”

I looked in that direction and it was some girl I didn’t recognize. She was short and asian, with long bleached-blue hair tied back behind her. I was instantly put off by her.

“Who’re you?” I asked.

She put her hands on her hips, bending forward, “Don’t act like you don’t know who I am! You’ve only been after me for, what, two years now?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know who you’re talking about, miss, but it’s not me.”

She ran up to me, getting on her tip-toes and waving her hand in my face. “Hellooo, Earth to Mike! We were only on the swim team together since freshman yeaaar.”

I shoved her. “Piss off.” She scowled.

Nick put his hand on my shoulder. “Yo, dude, why are you attacking a girl like that?”

“But I’m a–” I cut myself off. I wasn’t one anymore anyways. I groaned. “Fine, look, I’m sorry.” I said to the girl.

Her hands were folded. “God, you can’t even say my name? And to think I used to have a crush on you!”

That struck a chord. What was that name Gordon used to say that ‘I’ had a crush on?

“…Cat.”

Her eyes lit up a little. “Hey, you can say my name!”

“What do you want?” I grunted.

“I wanna know why you left the swim team like you did! It wasn’t fair to the team or, well, us.” She said.

“Trust me, you never entered into the decision. I left because swimming is a stupid sport.” I sniped back.

She stamped her foot. “B-but! You liked swimming before! You used to say you hated every other sport, and now you’re hanging out with, uh…” She looked at Nick, pondering her words. “Actually, this guy looks nice. But still!”

“Well, I changed my mind.” I said, turning to Nick. “Let’s go, Nick.” Then I started walking towards the parking lot.

“Hey! Wait! Where are you going?!” Cat yelled back at us. I noticed Nick was wavering between following me and listening to her.

I waved my hand back at her. “I don’t care. We’re done.”

“B-but what about us? What about your feelings for me!” She shouted.

I flipped around, still walking backwards towards the parking lot. “You’re not my type.” Then, I flipped back and kept on walking.

Nick ran to catch up to me. “Dude, Mike, you’re a cold-hearted motherfucker.”

I bumped my head. “Got a problem with that?”

He laughed. “Naaaaah. Just, you could have been a little nicer.”

I stayed quiet at that. I was just treating her how I treated all those girls in Rubyll. The only girl I ever even sort of got along with there was Erina, and even then I had pranked and messed with her pretty badly. She was more of a pet for me than anything else.

Maybe I should try being a little nicer, though.


	41. Paralogue 4: The Queen of Another Story

“Alright, Madeline, just change your glamour and you’re home–” I said, the tingling of magic beginning to run through my body.

But then, it was gone. My vision and heart went blank for only a second. Then it was back.

“M-madeline?” I whispered. But our soul’s connections was splintered. Not as if she had died either, the faint traces of patronage wafting from her soul. No, there was no patronage to be had here at all. It was a wholly different feeling from what I knew. How was I even alive if I didn’t have a patron to feed me?

I was staring at the sky above. There were six moons. Six? But, on Earth there was only one. And none of them were as colored as these were…

I fell through a purple cloud, unfamiliar energies accosting me. I reached out, hoping to harness it, but nothing came no matter the muscle I strained.

As I fell out of the cloud, I noticed it began to form into a shape. My body didn’t seem to respond in the ways it used to. I could feel wings at my back, but they didn’t move as if chained by something…

The lights in my eyes were growing ever brighter, then only other thing in my vision being the traces of vision in the cloud.

As I fell into through the atmosphere, the ground rushing ever-towards me, the light made my eyes bleed in both ways mortal and immortal.

Then I saw it, for but a moment before I hit the ground. The cloud I passed through, what it said.

[Zero Collection]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you miss me? 
> 
> I can't promise I'll not disappear for months at a time again, motivation is a fickle mistress, especially now that I work a 40-hour-a-week job. But, well, I didn't forget.


	42. Paralogue 4.5: The Queen in Her Castle

Once one becomes queen, they quickly find there is little to raise a hand against. For close to everything, you have supplicants to take care of things. Anything from a crisis of faith to a revolt in a far-off land can all be managed by your underlings.

It leads life to be rather boring. But, alas, that’s how it is supposed to be. Humans will only govern themselves into damnation after all. 

That being said, there’s one thing that leads a queen to rise from her throne.

An usurper.

All bathed in light was my domain, and that stray wisp of magic was under. How she thought I wouldn’t see her writing a spell in my clouds was her demise. 

I grabbed a one of the rays of light and traced it to the location in the sky. 

She was falling towards my damned brother’s domain. This was unlike her. How she got free from her prison could be investigated later, but she must truly be desperate to weave magic in front of me. Thankfully, I had weaved a secondary curse into her joints when we had first trapped her in that forsaken cave. It was trivial to start it, freezing her from flight. Gravity would do the rest. I just followed her down.

When she crashed into the ground, I landed in front of her. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Fitting for the most foolish of our breed.

“Nyatlisyah, it has truly been a while.”

She blinked, raising her hand barely, but not saying anything.

“We merely have to wait for our brother to get here to end this farce. A pity, you were the one sibling I thought could best me if given the opportunity.”

There was an eruption from the other side of us, sand and rubble falling from the fur of my four-legged brother. The first time we had met since the grand culling.

We both knew the rules. Culling the rogue elements that were our siblings came before our own feud.

It took only a nod for us to understand what to do. Nyatlisyah had survived our last attempt to slay her, but as she was now.

Masclei raised chains from the earth, binding her ever tighter. She didn’t seem to resist, she knew her fate was sealed.

It came to me to execute her. I grabbed another lightbeam and followed it backwards to its apex, all of Pharenth below me. I pointed from my peak to my sister.

“[Solar Flare].”

The sunbeam fired from my finger, disintegrating anything in its illumination. 

I came back down just moments later, and my brother was already gone. The only thing left was the corpse of our youngest sister, a perfect hole through her brain. That left one thing.

I stared back to where the conflict had began. There, a spell I had never seen hung on the air.

[Zero Collection].

I smiled. Whatever had my sister been planning...


End file.
